When I was writing papers in high school and college, I never gave the serial comma a thought. And I'm sure I both abused it and was inconsistent in its use. But that all changed when I started my first job as a copyeditor, and I discovered that the Oxford comma is one of the best tools to help ensure that each element in a series has equal weight.
In fact, because it can help make meaning more clear, the serial comma has had a history in legal disputes. This past January, Oakhurst Dairy in Maine shelled out $5 million to settle a dispute with its drivers, just because the Oxford comma was missing. Of course, the legal resolution to the language in the matter is more cumbersome than it would have been to have had the comma in the first place; however, I'm cheering for the punctuation's victory. Read all about it in this NYT article, and comment below if you've had similar triumphs (or even failures) with the Oxford comma.
In fact, because it can help make meaning more clear, the serial comma has had a history in legal disputes. This past January, Oakhurst Dairy in Maine shelled out $5 million to settle a dispute with its drivers, just because the Oxford comma was missing. Of course, the legal resolution to the language in the matter is more cumbersome than it would have been to have had the comma in the first place; however, I'm cheering for the punctuation's victory. Read all about it in this NYT article, and comment below if you've had similar triumphs (or even failures) with the Oxford comma.
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