Serial Killer
I've heard that admitting the problem is a good first step. So here goes.
My name is Kendall Gray, and I'm a serial killer.
Somewhere along the line, I killed the serial comma.
I became aware of the problem when Judge Brister staged an intervention. He sent back comments on a brief that we're writing, and one of his comments was:
Since when did you stop using the serial comma?
Oops. After the break, some blood, toil, tears, and sweat. And grammar, style, and writing advice. And commas.
I make my amends for serial killing.
If you don't know what a serial comma is, then you might be a serial killer too. Grammar Girl has a good explanation. A serial comma is:
the comma that comes before the final conjunction in a list. Here's a sentence that uses a serial comma: According to the website Box Office Mojo, the top-grossing movies of all time in the United States are currently Avatar, Titanic, and The Dark Knight.
Ironically, the British are somewhat less likely to use the serial comma, even though the device is also called the "Oxford comma" because of its use by the Oxford University Press.
When Judge Brister pointed it out, at first I thought it was no big deal. I mean, I just left it off because it "looked weird." In my defense, newspapers leave it off just to save a bit of space, and I can point with some justification to the AP Stylebook.
But after Judge Brister pointed it out, serial commas were everywhere I looked.
My denial and self-justification had its limits. The gig was up when I saw THIS POST from Above The Law. 82% of those surveyed rose to defend the honour of the Oxford comma.
Yeah? So what? 82% of lawyers can't write worth a flip either.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and one picture demonstrated beyond peradventure just how much potential violence I had done in killing off the serial comma.
So let the word go forth. The Appellate Record Stylebook shall henceforth require serial commas. Because juice on toast is just silly, soggy, and gross.
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I've always included the serial comma in my lists, and simply never understood why others (many others, btw) did not. The lead singer of Vampire Weekend, although having a bachelors in English from Columbia, would have agreed with your old self: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW7bB8D_mAY
Good post Kendall! People have actually corrected me for using it.
I've always used the serial comma (I think), but I became truly conscious of it after attending one of Bryan Garner's seminars. You can't hear a guy say "The future of the Republic depends upon the use of the serial comma" without sitting up and taking notice.
Juice on toast is also silly, soggy + gross.