My love for the Oxford comma is second only to my love for the semicolon (see the previous blog post). But what is the Oxford Comma? Also known as the serial comma, or Harvard comma, it’s the comma that occurs before the ‘and’ at the end of a list of things. For example, I love pizza, wine, and chocolate. See the orange comma? That’s what all the fuss is about. It’s known as the Oxford comma because for the last century it’s been part of the Oxford University Press style guide.

People are enormously passionate about the Oxford comma. In 2011 it was erroneously reported that Oxford University Press had removed it from their style guide, which sparked social media outrage, a flurry of anguished blog posts, and the creation of a “Save the Oxford Comma” Facebook community. Few punctuation marks have generated such depth of feeling. Thankfully, it transpired that the Oxford comma was still very much a part of the OUP style guide, and everyone retreated back to their corners.

However, debate still rages about whether the Oxford comma is really necessary. There’s no concrete answer; it’s a style issue. Some style guides say to use it and some say to avoid it. Unless I am writing under a specific style guide in the ‘avoid’ camp, I tend to include it all the time because it’s never not correct. To omit it can cause the sentence to be incorrect, though, and I’ve decided it’s too exhausting to apply the rule on a sentence-by-sentence basis.

Here’s an example of a sentence where it makes no difference if you use it or not.

I bought socks, shoes, and gloves.

I bought socks, shoes and gloves.

It’s fairly obvious that, whichever way you write it, you’re listing three separate things. If your style guide forbids Oxford commas, you’d choose the second option.

There are some sentences, however, where leaving out the Oxford comma drastically changes the meaning. I’ll use a famous 2013 Sky News tweet as an example.

“World leaders at Mandela tribute, Obama-Castro handshake and same-sex marriage date set…”

What Sky News intended was to list three separate news events, but the omission of the comma before the ‘and’ caused the sentence to read as if the two items after the first comma were related. It should have read:

“World leaders at Mandela tribute, Obama-Castro handshake, and same-sex marriage date set…”

This would have avoided the suggestion that Obama and Castro were about to get hitched, and the mirth of media commentators worldwide.

It’s worth noting that style guides who do not favour the use of the Oxford comma still prescribe it in instances such as this, where it is required to clarify the relationship between items in a list.

So, when you’re listing things, remember that it’s totally fine to use a comma before the ‘and’ – and it might just save you from making an embarrassing mistake.

For such a small symbol, the apostrophe sure does cause people a lot of trouble. Social media, signs and websites everywhere are littered with apostrophes that have no right to be where they are – generally lurking before the s at the end of a plural word. Historically, the worst perpetrators of this particular offence were greengrocers. We’ve all seen it. Apple’s – $3.99 per kg. Yes, we have banana’s. And so it came to pass that this error became known as a greengrocer’s apostrophe.

To be fair, there are quite a lot of rules surrounding the use of the apostrophe, so it’s not surprising that people get confused. I’ll break down the most common here. These should cover the majority of your apostrophe needs, so you can avoid joining the ranks of fruit stall sign writers everywhere.

Contractions: The first main use of the apostrophe is when you join two words together and miss one or more letters out in the process. The apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters.

Did not = didn’t
I have = I’ve
We will = we’ll
It is = it’s

This is a nice rule because it’s unambiguous. Missing letters? Pop an apostrophe in. This works when writing colloquial speech, too.

Have = ‘ave
Nothing = nothin’

Possessives: The second main use of the apostrophe is to show ownership. To indication possession, you place ‘s after the noun.

This is Brian’s bike = Brian owns the bike so an apostrophe goes before the s.

Here’s where it gets slightly more confusing because there are exceptions to this rule.

Possessive pronouns: A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun, like he, they and it. The possessive version doesn’t have an apostrophe.

He = his
They = theirs
It = its

This is Brian’s bike. Its bell is very loud. It’s rather annoying.

Possessive plural nouns: Confusion seems to abound over where to put the apostrophe when a possessive noun is also plural. In this instance, the apostrophe goes after the s.

I’m going to my parents’ house = I have two parents and they own the house. If you were to put the apostrophe before the s, then it would mean you had one parent whose house you were visiting.

The bees’ hive was enormous = there are lots of bees who have a huge hive. If you put the apostrophe before the s, then the whole hive would belong to one bee.

Possessive non-plural nouns ending in s: There’s no definitive rule here, and there are a couple of different style choices that are technically correct. Being consistent in your application is more important than which one you choose. I follow this rule of thumb, which seems to be most widely accepted:

If you say the es sound at the end of the word, then ‘s is appropriate.

That is James’s new bike.
Go to the boss’s office.
The bus’s door closed quickly.

If you don’t say the es at the end of the word, then just stick an apostrophe after it to make it possessive.

There was a gnome in Mr. Hastings’ garden.
Achilles’ heel was killing him.
Get off the lawn, for goodness’ sake.

There are more uses for the apostrophe, but the ones described above are the most common.

Do you have any questions about how to apply an apostrophe? If so, head on over to my Facebook and post them there.