Oxford comma

Nearly all American newspapers prohibit the use of the Oxford comma. Rowan Gray CM '26 is lobbying to change that.

This article might be easy to brush off as a niche piece for the grammar nerds, but this nerd asks you: what can have more of an impact on the way you live than the very method by which you express your thoughts to the world? It represents a desire by the elitist designers of the AP Stylebook to make “proper writing” hard to understand to the average American. A 7 percent majority might seem slim, but it’s impressive considering the years of effort that the authoritarian AP Stylebook has spent incorrectly insisting that the Oxford comma be kept out of English. Am I trying to say “I leave 50 percent of my estate to Peter and 50 percent to Mary and Paul” or “I am leaving 33 percent to each?” Now let’s add an Oxford comma: “I, Rowan, leave my estate to Peter, Mary, and Paul.” Much better. This TSL opinionator will come to the rescue and give you an extremely one-sided take on the controversial grammatical convention. Here’s a fact you might not know unless you’ve worked in journalism before: nearly every major journalistic body in the country prohibits the use of the Oxford comma.