We take our dedication to copywriting pretty seriously at Sack Lunch Agency. From our little home in Delray Beach, FL we’re always cooking up the best ways to make your brand shine on social media and in print.
But some others out there really take things a bit too seriously, especially when it comes to the Oxford comma. Considering some interesting cases recently, we wanted to weigh-in on the matter here and give our stance on this touchy topic.
The Oxford comma, also called the serial comma, refers to the comma that comes before the second-to-last item in a list. Believe it or not, whether to include the Oxford comma – the difference between A, B, and C or A, B, and C – is a heated debate among grammar nerds. And the outcome of a recent legal case only added fuel to the fire.
Workers for a dairy company claimed that, according to Maine labor laws, which exempts certain actions in jobs from overtime, they performed actions that were not exempt. The contentious phrase in the law reads, “…storing, packing for shipment or distribution…” The employer tried to say that “packing for shipment” and “distribution” were two different jobs, but the workers argued that “packing for shipment or distribution” was one item in the list (since they only distribute goods).
Without an Oxford comma, it’s impossible to tell whether it was meant as one final item or two separate items! However, because the Maine legislative style guide discourages the Oxford comma, the court ruled that the lawmakers most likely meant it as a single item. This cost the company 5 million dollars.
Another case, involving the inheritance of three siblings similarly sparked controversy from the lack of a serial comma. The first sibling listed in the estate argued that he should receive half of the inheritance, rather than one third and that the other half be split between the second and third siblings, all because the last two names weren’t separated by an Oxford comma in the will!
It certainly seems like including the Oxford comma as a rule would make everyone’s lives easier, right? However, most professionals still agree that the Oxford comma is unnecessary except in very specific situations.
Journalists almost never use it. Similarly, in the case of copywriters, who most often use “The Associated Press Stylebook” to inform their writing, the serial comma is also typically avoided. Both journalism and marketing rely on strong and direct statements; concision is the best way to achieve this, and the Oxford comma simply isn’t concise.
It might seem like a silly thing to get caught upon. But put yourself in these positions. An editor of a newspaper only has so much space on a page to fit all the stories and images. If every writer used an Oxford comma, you can suddenly have an extra 50 or so characters on the page, which could be the difference between an article fitting on the front page or being continued on a later page. Copywriters and editors in branding agencies must also think in terms of space, because adding a serial comma may be the difference between a tagline fitting on the product or not. Thus, brevity always wins the day.
Leave it to us to make sure the copy for your brand is crisp and clean. By making us your go-to agency, you get a branding agency, a packaging agency, and a social media agency, all in one. And you can trust us to use the Oxford comma correctly, if at all.
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