Oxford calms comma-use storm
Source: Agencies |
July 1, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A REPORT that Oxford University had changed its comma rule left some punctuation obsessives alarmed, annoyed, and distraught. Passions subsided as the university said the news was imprecise, incomplete and misleading.
Guides to correct style differ and the issue became heated on Twitter after reports of the Oxford comma's demise.
But have no fear, comma-philes: the Oxford comma lives. Oxford University Press, birthplace of the Oxford comma, said yesterday that there has been no change in its century-old style, and jumped into the Twittersphere to confirm that it still follows the "New Hart's Rules."
The only explicit permission to dispense with the Oxford comma - apparently the cause of the alarm - was in a guide for university staff on writing press releases and internal communications.
"It's not new, it's been online for several years already," said Maria Coyle in the university press office.
Yet the report caused a Twitterstorm.
"For teaching me that the Oxford comma resolves ambiguity, I'd like to thank my parents, Sinead O'Connor and the Pope," said Twitter user Aaron Suggs, illustrating the potential damage that can be caused to a sentence's meaning.
The kerfuffle at least answered the musical question posed by indie band Vampire Weekend: "Who gives a ---- about an Oxford comma?"
Well, users like Heather Anne Halpert ((at)blurryellow): "Are you people insane? The Oxford comma is what separates us from the animals."
Some style guides advocate the comma and most also counsel using common sense to make meanings clear.
William Strunk, Jr, who has guided writers through "The Elements of Style," wrote in the book's first edition of 1918: "In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last."
That position is backed by "The Chicago Manual of Style" and the style manual of the US Government Printing Office.
The style guide of the British Broadcasting Corp also commends liberal use of commas "in those pesky lists," and advises a comma to separate each item.
But style guides from The Associated Press and the London newspapers The Times and The Guardian dispense with a comma before the conjunction.
Guides to correct style differ and the issue became heated on Twitter after reports of the Oxford comma's demise.
But have no fear, comma-philes: the Oxford comma lives. Oxford University Press, birthplace of the Oxford comma, said yesterday that there has been no change in its century-old style, and jumped into the Twittersphere to confirm that it still follows the "New Hart's Rules."
The only explicit permission to dispense with the Oxford comma - apparently the cause of the alarm - was in a guide for university staff on writing press releases and internal communications.
"It's not new, it's been online for several years already," said Maria Coyle in the university press office.
Yet the report caused a Twitterstorm.
"For teaching me that the Oxford comma resolves ambiguity, I'd like to thank my parents, Sinead O'Connor and the Pope," said Twitter user Aaron Suggs, illustrating the potential damage that can be caused to a sentence's meaning.
The kerfuffle at least answered the musical question posed by indie band Vampire Weekend: "Who gives a ---- about an Oxford comma?"
Well, users like Heather Anne Halpert ((at)blurryellow): "Are you people insane? The Oxford comma is what separates us from the animals."
Some style guides advocate the comma and most also counsel using common sense to make meanings clear.
William Strunk, Jr, who has guided writers through "The Elements of Style," wrote in the book's first edition of 1918: "In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last."
That position is backed by "The Chicago Manual of Style" and the style manual of the US Government Printing Office.
The style guide of the British Broadcasting Corp also commends liberal use of commas "in those pesky lists," and advises a comma to separate each item.
But style guides from The Associated Press and the London newspapers The Times and The Guardian dispense with a comma before the conjunction.
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