Punctuation Talk: Why the Comma is Weird...
...and possibly why people don’t use it correctly.
So, when I first thought of this post series thing, I thought of commas. Commas are definitely weird. When do you use them? When don’t you use them? The thing is, there’s also this thing called “The Oxford Comma” that some people use and some people don’t use. The Oxford Comma is the last comma before the word and (or “or”) in a list (e.g. using the Oxford Comma: milk, tea, and bread; not using the Oxford Comma: milk, tea and bread). This just bugs me, because I can’t really understand people who don’t use the Oxford Comma. I don’t mean that I don’t understand why they don’t use it, I just can’t understand the things that they write. If you write something in a list like that (take for example the list above), you might be grouping two things like tea and bread into one group when you either don’t mean to or don’t want to.
Why has this turned into a rant? I’m not sure. Also, commas indicate pauses in a conversation. I don’t do well with pauses. Especially on the phone. When am I supposed to speak? This misunderstanding leads me to often start talking when the other person starts talking and can lead to a deadlock of “You go ahead.” “No, you go ahead.”
Bottom line is: commas are weird. Everyone should either use the Oxford Comma, or don’t (and they really should), and I really don’t like what commas represent in a conversation. This has been Punctuation Talk. Thank you.