I'll just say this, never get between these people when drink has been taken

[cimorene]

Dear Brother Windows,

When I said that I prefer the Oxford comma and that there is debate about whether it should be used or not, the "debate" thing was an indication that in fact, neither way is definitively correct or incorrect. Both usages coexist. They compete. So an appropriate response to "I would use it" is not "You'd be wrong"; the whole point is that neither way is actually wrong. Also, I'm pretty sure that no non-native speaker of English is going to correctly correct my punctuation, ever. It's certainly never happened before. I was affectionately known as Grammar Cop within the family when I was a wee one with reason.

Lovingly but admittedly somewhat snootily,
Cim

ETA: On the subject of grammar, The Ghost of Christmas Future Perfect Passive.

Comments

[dreamnnightmare.livejournal.com]

I've heard 1 valid argument 4 omitting the oxford comma: saving ink and paper. But ultimately the saving is insufficient to justify the dorky comma-bereft construction.

IMNSHO

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Pshht, who uses INK and PAPER? Also - an additional comma probably only makes a text take more lines (aka paper) one time in a hundred, if that. In most fonts - because most fonts are not monowidth - it takes far less than the width of a character.