Serial Comma-ntary

What follows is one of the first blog posts I ever wrote. Unlike much of what I write about, the things that make writing, itself, good are always current events. I think my law school friend–she shall remain nameless, though I believe she knows who she is–has never actually changed her position on the serial comma, but I hope to win her over one day. At any rate, one of my favorite posts from days past is below:

“Clarity is the politeness of the man of letters.” –  Jules Renard, Journal, 1892.

A law school friend of mine, an accomplished partner at a major employment law firm, recently registered her opposition to what she termed the “extra” comma included before the final conjunction–the “and” or “or” concluding a list.  She refers, of course, to the serial comma, also known as the “Oxford” or “Harvard” comma.

Indeed, my friend’s position has some support. The Associated Press style manual proscribes the use of the serial comma in the name of saving space–always a concern for newspaper reporters. But, while lawyers do face page limits when preparing some documents, clarity rather than space must surely be the greater concern.

As for my own feelings about the serial comma, I cannot state it any better than did Bryan Garner, a noted authority on legal writing, in his excellent book The Winning Brief, 2^d ed. (Oxford University Press 2003) [Mr. Garner has now moved on to his third edition]:

Although journalists omit the serial comma to save space, virtually all writing authorities outside journalism recommend consistently using it to prevent ambiguities.  When it comes to legal writing, is it even a close call?

Garner then gives the following exemplar: “As soon as Jones recognized that he had a potential conflict of interest, he placed calls to Standard Oil, Fidelity Bank, Thompson and Lee and Barnes.”  The question that arises is: how many calls did Jones make? Four? Five? Is “Thompson and Lee” a single entity, or is”Lee and Barnes”? Inclusion of a serial comma makes all the difference and turns a muddled mess into a succinct list.

At a time when our national discourse has devolved into little more than swearing and verbal fisticuffs, we should all aim for politeness in our written matters. As Renard noted, politeness means clarity in this context, and use of the serial comma could therefore be considered just plain good manners.