There’s always been a lot of controversy surrounding the Oxford comma. Should you use it or should you leave it out? (Personally, I think you should use it. I mean, what the heck? It’s important!)
The Oxford comma appears in a list of items, right before the conjunction.
- Here’s an example of a sentence with no Oxford comma: “I enjoy looking at pictures of my friends, Barack Obama and Michael Fassbender.” Without the Oxford comma, it sounds like Barack Obama and Michael Fassbender are two of my best friends. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
- And here’s the same sentence with an Oxford comma: “I enjoy looking at pictures of my friends, Barack Obama, and Michael Fassbender.” Now it’s clear that I’m just a weirdo who likes looking at pictures of politicians and celebrities on the internet. Much more accurate!
But how did this punctuation mark come into existence? Who was the first person to decide we should use it? Watch the following video to learn all about the history of this controversial comma!
