Commas, choices, and decisions
I’ve been wanting to write about the topic of using a comma before conjunctions like “and” or “or” in your business writing for a while. It’s something that comes up with every website I work on and I’ve learned some of my clients have pretty strong opinions about whether it’s appropriate to add the extra comma or not in their website text.
Ever since I tried to force the use of my extra Oxford comma on my friend Judy’s website (unsuccessfully, I might add), I realized that I would have to be flexible in what I thought was “the rule.” So I did the research and although I used the Oxford comma (that extra comma) in all my years at IBM as a technical writer and still use it today, the Associated Press thinks it’s perfectly ok to drop it. So two punctuation rules and both are right…that’s not something you see very often when it comes to grammar!
Why I like the Oxford (serial) comma
The Oxford comma is the comma used before “and” or “or” in a list of three or more items. I like it because it makes it clear how many items you’re describing. With the Oxford comma in this example, it’s clear that I had a busy weekend with four events:
I was so busy this weekend. I went to two parties, a wedding, and a reunion.
Why the Associated Press doesn’t mind leaving out the final comma
In journalism, the extra comma is regarded as an impediment to a reader’s silent reading of the text. From that perspective, the extra comma slows the reader down. AP Style lets you decide whether an extra comma is needed or not. If it’s needed for clarity, writers are advised to add it. If it’s not needed for clarity, they can omit the last comma.
If I’m omitting the Oxford comma in my writing, this example is unclear about how many events I attended.
I was so busy this weekend. I went to two parties, a wedding and a reunion.
For consistency throughout a website, when adopting this style, I prefer to rewrite a confusing sentence so all lists are clear without the final comma. I would rewrite the sentence to make the number of events clear:
I was so busy this weekend. I went to two parties, as well as a wedding and a reunion.
Which style should you use on your website?
It turns out you can take your pick of rules when using commas in a list. The main thing to remember is that you take your stand and stick with it all the way through your writing of a website, a blog post, or a social media post. Either way is fine, but keep it consistent throughout your writing for readers’ sakes. If you choose the fewer-commas approach, my advice is to rewrite any sentences that could be confusing.
