Because I've seen it severely neglected lately, I've decided to talk about my favorite punctuation mark — the serial comma. This type of comma is the “Ocean's Twelve” of the journalism world, neglected and ignored as if it doesn't exist. This saddens me because unlike Vampire Weekend, I give a damn about the Oxford comma (its other, niftier name).
The serial comma is the last comma in a series — the comma before the conjunction.
Take this sentence for example: Some people use Facebook for socializing, virtual poking, and hey-I-saw-you-once-in-a-bar-so-I’m-adding-you-now creeping.
The comma before the “and” is the serial comma. In news articles, these commas are MIA, and the argument is that only what is absolutely necessary should make it in an article (brevity and conciseness are two huge values in journalism).
However, my argument is that adding a tiny little comma for clarity's sake is totally worth it. Sentences can easily spiral out of control, especially when lists are involved.
Example: I love “Twilight” because it involves the sexiest vampire to ever fictionally sparkle all over God's green Earth, Bella Swan is a super classy, cool, awesome narrator who has a really great personality and is in love with Edward Cullen and Jacob Black is an incredibly good-looking wolf boy with the hots for Bella, as well.
Other than the fact that I almost threw up writing the previous sentence, it's also a clustered mess of information that could seriously use a serial comma. When things really get out of hand, semi-colons can be used, but that’s a story for another time and another “Twilight” rant.
So there’s no straightforward rule about whether or not you should use a comma. If you’re a grammar minimalist, I’d still suggest giving it a try when your sentence is as jumbled and random as Ke$ha song lyrics.
However, I adore this little comma, and I’m forced to abandon it because of my journalism major. So next time you’re writing an essay, a love note, or a letter to the Alligator about how much you hate whatever the hell you hate so much, please adopt the serial comma as a favor to me. I’d appreciate it.
