November 13, 2015

Go Ahead, Make Your Best Case Against the Oxford Comma

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Atrios is singing my song:

The one “grammar debate” I don’t get is the Oxford Comma debate. Of course there should be one. There’s no argument for leaving them out, and a million obvious ones for including them. There is no debate. Include it, barbarians.

I’ve never gotten this either. Even if the lack of a final comma creates ambiguity only one time in a hundred, why not use it for that one time in a hundred? It’s completely harmless the other 99 times, isn’t it? Seriously: what’s the argument against the Oxford comma?

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