The Serial Comma

In the 1995 movie Get Shorty, Bo and Chili (Delroy Lindo and John Travolta) discuss the writing process in Hollywood.

“There’s nothing to it,” Bo says. “All you do, (you) get an idea, you set down what you want to say on paper. Then you hire somebody else to fill in the commas and shit.”

That’s it? That’s it, y'all.

Speaking of commas, the Chicago Manual of Style has more than three dozen subsections devoted to comma usage. The Associated Press Styleguide offers guidelines for 17 common questions about commas.

Let’s look at two situations: comma or no comma with people’s names and comma or no comma in a series.

NO COMMA (with a restrictive appositive):

Chapter president Jayne Doe made the announcement.

Author J.Q. Public signed books after the meeting.

The elephant Horton heard a Who.

COMMA (with a nonrestrictive appositive):

The president of the local chapter, Jayne Doe, made the announcement.

Jon Doe, chapter vice president, also addressed the audience.

Joseph Blow, a visual artist, attended the meeting.

Horton, a Jungle of Nool resident, protected Whoville.

An appositive is a noun that further explains a noun. If it's restricted, the appositive is not set off with commas.

With nonrestrictive appositives, you can delete the words between the commas and the sentence still makes sense. The president made the announcement. Jayne Doe addressed the audience.

SERIAL COMMAS

Are you supposed to use a comma before the final conjunction in a series?

Chicago Manual of Style and most other style guides say yes. The serial comma, Harvard comma, and Oxford comma are interchangeable terms.

Larry, Curly, Moe, and Shemp.

The Associated Press Stylebook doesn’t use a serial comma in a simple series. But it absolutely, positively, incandescently advocates the use of a serial comma in a complex series or in any situation where the meaning could be unclear. Citing AP its own self: Include a final comma in a simple series if omitting it could make the meaning unclear.

As with all punctuation, clarity is the biggest rule. If a comma does not help make clear what is being said, it should not be there. If omitting a comma could lead to confusion or misinterpretation, then use the comma.

Sample sentence fitting in with both Chicago and AP:

We read about Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, and Taylor and Travis.

And hey, if you need to hire someone to fill in the commas and shit, let's talk. 😁