Little Things Count: Commas Count

Little things count when attempting to communicate clearly, especially when communicating in writing. And what is smaller, yet more important, than a comma? So, what function does a comma perform? When speaking, tone and word meaning and the breaths and pauses used to speak sentences are mixed with body-language cues and a long pause versus a short pause causes less confusion. Although you might ask an actor or actress if all pauses are equal. My best bet is they'd tell you they are not.

So, why is the small, lowly little comma so vital? Because it indicates pauses between the parts of sentences which together join a whole -- a communication.

To the uninitiated, comma usage seems random, as though it is a game of poker with "dealers choice" rules. And to some degree this is true, and nothing exemplifies the on-again off-again rules as surely as the "Oxford Comma."

It is the "list comma" gone wacko. Some specific formats want the comma inserted before the "and," and some don't. This wackiness stems from a different value placed on the "and." To the people demanding the "Oxford Comma," the "and" take the item on either side and treats it as a unit; the "and" is equal to a plus (+) sign.

I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (The "and" forms the peanut butter AND the jelly into one unit.

The above cartoon (and sorry whoever designed it, it just appeared in my inbox, sent by a student) demonstrates what happens when the "toast and orange juice" are treated as a unit. A mess occurs. But only if you are working within a media which treats the "and" as a "plus" sign. Wacko, right?

So, how is the writer attempting to communicate to tweeps around the world supposed to know how the reader will interpret the "list comma" (AKA "items in a series" or "Oxford Comma"). The answer is that the writer can't know, ever, if what they have written, the words they have ordered onto the page, communicate the ideas woven into them. The writer can only make their best attempt, and let the words, the letters, commas, and ideas free.