September 2021
The Scrivener
For Want of a Comma: Oxford Commas
SC Lawyer
"Who gives a [hoot] about an Oxford comma?”
-Oxford Comma, Vampire Weekend (lyrics by Ezra Koenig) (XL Recordings 2008)
This column will be short and sweet, and it will be about a comma. It deserves its own column because, outside of deciding whether to put one or two spaces after the end of a sentence, use of Oxford commas (also known as serial commas) has caused more heated arguments between lawyers than almost any other writing issue in my lifetime.
Reprinted with permission.
