The debate over Oxford commas (also known as serial commas).

Today’s tip concerns . . . Oxford commas! This tip was prompted by a federal appeals case from the First Circuit that I ran across this week (decided in March 2017) in which a group of dairy drivers argued that they deserved overtime pay. The company said, “nope.”

But the First Circuit sided with the drivers, holding that the overtime guidelines were ambiguous because they lacked an Oxford comma. The guidelines stated that overtime pay was not required for “[t]he canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of” dairy products. The question on appeal was whether “packing for shipment” was its own activity or only applied when the “distribution of” dairy products was involved too. If the sentence had an Oxford comma that separated “packing for shipment” from “distribution,” then those activities would clearly be separate. But since the sentence lacked that comma, the drivers argued, the exception only applied if they both packed and distributed dairy products—and since they didn’t do both, the guidelines didn’t apply and they were entitled to overtime pay. Believe it or not, the drivers won that argument on appeal. Read all about it here: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca1/16-1901/16-1901-2017-03-13.html.

Now, lest you be inclined to disregard the holding of a decision from a federal appeals court in the Northeast, writing gurus Strunk and White agree that you should separate a series of more than two items with commas. See Strunk & White, The Elements of Style (4th ed. 2000). Use of an Oxford comma (i.e., a comma before a conjunction, such as “and”) in a series of more than two items is helpful to your reader because it eliminates the possibility of misreading, e.g.:

The American flag is red, white, and blue.

The French flag is blue, white, and red.

Compare the following examples:

The Scribe wishes to dedicate this tip to his parents, William Strunk, and E.B. White.

The Scribe wishes to dedicate this tip to his parents, William Strunk and E.B. White.

See how the missing comma creates a wee bit of confusion in the second example? (It must be admitted, however, that the readers’ respect for the Scribe’s writing acumen would increase immensely if Strunk & White were indeed his parents.)

Finally, on rare occasions it might be necessary for clarity to separate even two items in a series with a comma, such as when the items themselves contain multiple elements, e.g.:

In support of her motion, the plaintiff cited Oregon and Washington cases, and state and federal regulations.

That is all for now …