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There's pleasant little book ta deals with this. It also differentiates between British and American usage. It was a best seller. Buy one off the physical editions.
Opinions please. Why is #1 better than #2? (sentence fragments intended)
1.) Eggs, bacon, cheese and bread.
2.) Eggs, bacon, cheese, and bread.
Other than the obvious one character less.
Don't get me wrong, I always use #1 form.
Note there is always the:
3.) Eggs, bacon, cheese, bread.
The truckers law suit in a nutshell:
In a trucking contract, the truckers can only eat one of listed food choices in your 1.) or your 2.)
The truckers in the lawsuit are going to use your 1.), because the last choice is cheese and bread. They are not going to go for your list 2.) because then they can only have cheese OR bread (or eggs or bacon).
The "Oxford comma" is simply proper use of the comma - depending on the context of course. So if you always use #1 regardless, how does your reader distinguish between the two different meanings just discussed?
If you read the summary of the lawsuit you'll see why failure to use the Oxford comma was an expensive mistake. Those truckers, sticklers for grammar, took 'em to the cleaners!
I use the Oxford comma in my writing, for no other reason than it is in accordance with The Chicago Manual of Style. More important than whether or not it is used is that it is either used, or not used, consistently in a given work.
But I cannot get worked up over the rather silly question as to whether or not one or the other is right or proper.
I admit I fell away from the Oxford comma in my wild 20s, those heady years when participles dangled and run-ons ran on (though I never inhaled). I'm glad I'm back now.
I admit I fell away from the Oxford comma in my wild 20s, those heady years when participles dangled and run-ons ran on (though I never inhaled). I'm glad I'm back now.
Thank God I'm not a lawyer. I'll continue to use the grammar I was taught in school.
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