![\"Image](\"http:\/\/writehouse.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/The-Oxford-Comma.jpg\")
<\/a>Image credit: 2.bp.blogspot.com<\/p><\/div>In a list of 3 or more items with a single conjunction or disjunction, \u201calways insert the serial comma. Some writers insist on omitting the last comma, before the \u2018and\u2019 [or ‘or’]. Do not omit the last comma\u2014doing so can cause misinterpretation.\u201d (Judge Mark P. Painter, \u201930 Suggestions to Improve Readability, or How to Write for Judges, Not Like Judges\u2019, page 19, www.judgepainter.org\/publications.)<\/p>\n
That serial comma is also known as the Oxford comma. Deploy it to good use. <\/p>\n
Write: affidavits, briefs, and pleadings<\/em><\/p>\n Not: affidavits, briefs and pleadings<\/em><\/p>\n Write: arbitrators, attorneys, mediators, and judges<\/em> <\/p>\n Not: arbitrators, attorneys, mediators and judges<\/em><\/p>\n Write: civil procedure, criminal law, real estate, or intellectual property<\/em> <\/p>\n Not: civil procedure, criminal law, real estate or intellectual property <\/em><\/p>\n Without the Oxford comma, the last 2 items in any of the lists seem to have an incestuous relationship. They appear separated from the earlier items in the list. They seem to have a special affinity not shared with the rest. Leaving out the Oxford comma “creates strange bedfellows at the end of sentences.” (see endnote below)<\/p>\n The Oxford comma clarifies meaning especially when the listed items are not single words. <\/p>\n The Write House teaches academic writing, brief writing, business and corporate writing, judicial writing, learned writing, legislative drafting, litigation documents, and transactional drafting.<\/em> <\/p>\n This sentence might be confusing without the Oxford comma. <\/p>\n Some authorities and style guides, including the New York Times<\/em>, oppose the Oxford comma. Yet others suggest discriminatory use, saying it should only be used to resolve ambiguity. Don\u2019t mind either camp. The Oxford University Press and the US Government Printing Office use the Oxford comma.<\/p>\n Novelist Harold Livingston (author of The Coasts of the Earth, The Detroiters, and Ride a Tiger<\/em>) inserts the Oxford comma:<\/p>\n . . . oldest, closest, and best friend<\/em> . . .(Harold Livingston, Ride a Tiger, London, Futura, 1987, 460.)<\/p>\n Francine Rivers, the award-winning Christian-fiction writer, also uses the Oxford comma:<\/p>\n Whether they were sitting, standing, or walking, Theophilus taught him Scripture <\/em>. . . (Francine Rivers, As Sure As the Dawn, Carol Stream, Illinois, Tyndale, 1995, 337.)<\/p>\n The Oxford comma should be mandatory in legal writing. Bryan Garner, the legal-writing pope and editor-in-chief of Black\u2019s Law Dictionary<\/em>, endorses the Oxford comma, saying, \u201cUse a comma to separate words or phrases grouped in a series of three or more, and include a comma before the conjunction.\u201d (Bryan Garner, The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style<\/em>, 2nd edition, 2002, 3.) I would add, \u201cor disjunction\u201d\u2014the Oxford comma also applies when the last item in a list is preceded by or rather than and. So write the Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal, or the Supreme Court<\/em>; not the Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court.<\/em><\/p>\n The Oxford comma applies even when the listed items are not nouns. The following examples are from The Elements of Style<\/em> (W Strunk Jr and E B White, The Elements of Style<\/em>, 3.):<\/p>\n Write: honest, energetic, but headstrong<\/em> Write: He opened the letter, read it, and made a note of its contents.<\/em> With several conjunctions or disjunctions, you usually need no commas.<\/p>\n Write: Anne and Chinua and Eno<\/em> Write: Joshua or Maxwell or Sam<\/em> The Pope and Mother Teresa<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re still sceptical about the Oxford comma, consider People v Walsh<\/em> {2008 WL 724724 (NY Criminal Court Jan 3, 2008)}. In that case, the judge upheld the Oxford comma, saying obiter<\/em>, \u201cFor example, in an author\u2019s dedication \u2018to my parents, the Pope and Mother Teresa\u2019, the absence of a comma between \u2018Pope\u2019 and \u2018and\u2019 indicates that the author\u2019s parents are the Pope and Mother Teresa . . . \u201d\u2014a blasphemous dedication! So, unless the author is of virgin birth, the correct dedication would read: To my parents, the Pope, and Mother Teresa<\/em>\u2014the work is dedicated to 4 people: the author\u2019s two parents, the Pope, and Mother Teresa.<\/p>\n The ampersand and business-name exceptions to the Oxford comma rule<\/strong><\/p>\n When you use the symbol &<\/em> for and<\/em> instead of spelling out the conjunction, then you should not insert the Oxford comma. The logogram &<\/em> is called an ampersand. <\/p>\n Write: Enemuo, Kola & Ibrahim<\/em><\/p>\n Not: Enemuo, Kola, & Ibrahim<\/em><\/p>\n Write: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz<\/em><\/p>\n Not: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz<\/em><\/p>\n But you should not ordinarily use ampersands in your writing. Never insert ampersands in legislative or transactional drafting. Reserve them for unavoidable use, as in the names of firms which already spell their name with an ampersand. <\/p>\n Many law firms use no commas in their name. Don\u2019t force a comma into a firm name. Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun<\/em> do not insert commas in their firm name. So:<\/p>\n Write: Adepetun Caxton-Martins Agbor & Segun<\/em><\/p>\n Not: Adepetun, Caxton-Martins, Agbor, & Segun<\/em><\/p>\n And not: Adepetun, Caxton-Martins, Agbor & Segun<\/em><\/p>\n Omit the Oxford comma in business names:<\/p>\n Write: Eneli, Kuku and Obiora<\/em><\/p>\n Not: Eneli, Kuku, and Obiora<\/em><\/p>\n Endnote<\/strong> In a list of 3 or more items with a single conjunction or disjunction, \u201calways insert the serial comma. Some writers insist on omitting the last comma, before the \u2018and\u2019 [or ‘or’]. Do not omit the last comma\u2014doing so can cause misinterpretation.\u201d (Judge Mark P. Painter, \u201930 Suggestions to Improve Readability, or How to Write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[142,143,144,98],"class_list":["post-711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-write-partner","tag-legal-writing-skills","tag-the-oxford-comma","tag-the-pope-and-mother-teresa","tag-the-write-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writehouseng.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNot: honest, energetic but headstrong<\/em><\/p>\n
\nNot: He opened the letter, read it and made a note of its contents.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nNot: Anne, and Chinua, and Eno<\/em><\/p>\n
\nNot: Joshua, or Maxwell, or Sam<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAlexandra Petri, \u2018Save the Oxford comma! A Grammar Nazi\u2019s plea\u2019, ComPost, www.washingtonpost.com, 30 June 2011 (last accessed 13 November 2013).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"