The Oxford Comma
The Oxford Comma that I just learned about was an “aha” moment. This will be just a quick post because this was something that I am sure I should have learned in high school but just did not pay attention. Probably also did not pay attention in college either. The dictionary defines Oxford comma as “a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’”. Attributed to Horace Hart, who worked at the Oxford University Press. His style guide, introduced in 1905, includes this use of the comma to be used by the employees there. The Serial comma uses the same style as the Oxford Comma.
Here is an example of the AP style: I love my siblings, Ariana Grande and Sean Connery.
This could be interpreted, and create a strange misunderstanding, that my siblings are Ariana Grande and Sean Connery. And that I only love them. Oxford comma writes like: I love my siblings, Ariana Grande, and Sean Connery.