Purest, vilest heresy.

[theweaselking]

Oxford's manual of style disavows the Oxford Comma.

This, as all right-thinking people understand, is absurd, wrong, and evil. When making a comma-delimited list, one delimits the list items with commas. Period.

(So to speak)

via kafziel

Comments

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

God, damn, and right.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Fuck the Oxford manual of style, man; fuck it right in the ear.

[swwoodsy.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

Particularly so since one of our cases in court was thrown out by the judge because not using the final comma "made the meaning of the sentence ambiguous."

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

What mystifies me is how many fundamentally wrongbrained people are actually defending this absurdity.

They don't seem to be able to wrap their head around the idea that when one always uses a comma to delimit a list, then the lack of a comma also has clarifying meaning. "The Faerbers, Michael and Yolanda" always refers to Michael and Yolanda Faerber; "The Faerbers, Michael, and Yolanda" always refers to at least four people. Instead, they blather on about kerning, or about how it reads wrong if you're so miseducated as not to expect it because then you think there's gonna be two list items.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

More pointedly: While you can construct an awkward sentence where the Oxford As Is Right And Proper comma can potentially seem confusing? That sentence is awkward and should be rephrased.

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

Do you have an example? Because I've never encountered a sentence where using the comma creates ambiguity, nor can I even conceive of one.

[drcuriosity]

I'm at a loss to come up with one, too.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The serial comma creates ambiguity in cases where you have only two items in the list and one of them involves a comma.

Wikipedia's examples are things like:
"They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and a cook"

Where your two items are "Betty, a maid" and "a cook", this is confusing

However, if you WANTED to say "a maid named Betty and a cook", you damn well should have said so. The way that shitty-assed sentence was written said, clearly, that Betty, the maid, and the cook are three separate people.

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

The use of the serial comma is the difference between "They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and a cook" and "They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a cook". Misleading either way. The failure of the serial comma to resolve an external ambiguity is not one resolved by skipping it.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, agreed. There are cases where not using the CORRECT AND PROPER comma introduces a new ambiguity, but all of them were ambiguous in the first place.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

You can just start calling it the Harvard comma. I think Harvard's still on the side of right (at least insofar as comma-delimited lists are concerned.)

Annoying grammar fact: French doesn't use the serial comma and it DRIVES ME NUTS.

[swwoodsy.livejournal.com]

Chicago's Manual of Style (15th ed.) still "strongly recommends this widely practiced usage," but does style it the "serial or series comma or the Oxford comma."

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

I suppose we'll have to start calling it The Comma Used By All Right-Thinking and Sensible Writers instead.

[cavalorn.livejournal.com]

As I tweeted earlier: you may take my Oxford comma when you prise my cold, dead, and rigid fingers from it.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

"Merle Haggard: The documentary was filmed over three years. Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall."

I rest my case.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Nelson Mandela, an 8000-year-old demigod and a dildo collector would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Curses, beaten to the punch.

[secretagentmoof]

I'd always heard the ur-example as being "I'd like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God."

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

I made sandwiches! We've got turkey, peanut butter, tuna, ham and cheese. What would you like?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Your lack of comma has introduced ambiguity.

(If "ham and cheese" is one sandwich, it needs an "and" after the last comma. If "ham" and "cheese" are two sandwiches, ham needs it's fucking comma because COMMA DELIMITED LISTS ARE DELIMITED BY COMMAS)

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

"its", not "it's".

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

This is also stupid.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

It's not stupid at all. It's got its purposes.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I will stab you.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Are you loosing control? Breath, breath!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Also (http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2730):

"Peter Ustinov retraces a journey made by Mark Twain a century ago. The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

I'll have to ask my parents- Ayn Rand and God- about this, but I'm pretty sure that this is the first step to Planet of the Apes.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

If you’re pedantic enough to be talking about this, you’re pedantic enough to use a proper dash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#Em_dash). Or at least offset your heathen hyphens with spaces. Planet of the Apes, indeed. :p

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

While I stand by my illegal repurposing of the humble hyphen, I *will* concede bonus points to anyone who uses Dalton Trumbo in a user icon :)

(Edmond Rostand was right: the tub is an underrated locale for writing.)

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Heh, well spotted.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

False alarm. That's the Oxford University Public Relations department's style guide, not the general Oxford style guide.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

WHY DOES THEIR PR DEPARTMENT NOT USE PROPER GRAMMAR?

[mode=james_nicoll]IN! THE! SINK! WHO SITS DOWN AND SAYS "THE WORLD NEEDS A FACE CLOTH THAT MUST BE KEPT PERFECTLY DRY?"[/mode]

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

They're a PR department. Who knows?

[maelorin]

they're pr. so *of course* they don't use proper grammar.

when was the last time anyone out of a 'communications' school botheres with anything beyond how clever they are, or how fascinating their discourse must be?

also, they're lazy. and know very little about their subject, or their audience. (see above.)

just like hr.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Honest to fucking god, this is the best news I have had all day.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

That said, I'm really proud of the comment I came up with:

"Those who say God is dead because of the Oxford comma thing are wrong--it's worse. He's married to Ayn Rand."

[ashbet]

*bwahhhh!!!*

And I am most pleased to hear this -- I was deeply distressed by the news earlier!

-- A <3

[falconwarrior.livejournal.com]

"Disavowing the Oxford comma is by far my greatest achievement. I'd like to thank my parents, Mother Teresa and the pope."

[botia.livejournal.com]

WTF. I think the Oxford comma makes the most logical sense, and it also helps me parse sentences better when reading aloud. You pause between each item, including the last one, so why wouldn't you put a comma there? This is just dumb.

[maelorin]

wot awl dis bovver abowt gramma? she ain dun nuffin rong!