Oxford Comma

To Use Or Not To Use - That Is The Question!

What is the Oxford Comma?

The Oxford Comma is basically the serial comma. 
It can, also, be known as the Harvard Comma.

Put simply, it is when you separate three or more items with a comma INCLUDING A COMMA BEFORE the 'and' or 'or' in the statement.

The three items are one, two, and three.

What is it important?

Using the Oxford Comma helps to express an idea more thoroughly.  If you reference the photo above, you will see a visual example of what I mean.

WITH OXFORD COMMA - We invite the cats, boy, and girl.

WITHOUT - We invite the cats, boy and girl.

As you can see, the placement of the comma changes the meaning of the sentence.  This is quite important when you are writing legal documents, but it's still necessary in creative writing, as well.

Court Cases Involving The Oxford Comma

There are actually court cases that had rulings based on the Oxford Comma and whether it was used or not.  I found this to be interesting, so I wanted to share.

Though I couldn't find the actual case, this article does have an estate issue that was caused by the lack of an oxford comma:

I am sure that are many more examples!

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