Oxford Comma - college essays

[Anonymous]

Grammarly will automatically correct for this.

[Anonymous]

If whether or not to use an Oxford comma in a college essay is keeping you up at night, you are too close to this essay and likely can’t see the forest for the trees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grammarly will automatically correct for this.

Will it correct it correctly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child doesn’t have an opinion on the Oxford comma—or at least enough writing experience to know which system their teachers typically prefer—maybe they’re not quite ready for college?

My kid isn’t applying for admission to the school she already attends, and that school teaches good writing, not slavish arbitrary rules.

Okay, but look at the arbitrary rules you followed in your post alone: beginning your sentence with an uppercase letter; ending with a period; using a contraction with an apostrophe; joining two independent clauses with a comma and the coordinating conjunction “and.”

Was it slavish to follow those rules? We surely could have understood your meaning if you hadn’t, and great writers have chooses at various points to eschew these rules. What in your opinion makes a particular rule slavish?

You don't seem to understand what the word "arbitrary" means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who don’t use the Oxford comma are monsters.

+1. Also, my 6th grader knows how to use the serial comma: using it does not look like a parent edited, it looks like your kid can write.

Does your sixth grader know how to use a semicolon? Maybe she can teach you.

A semicolon connects two thoughts of equal weight, while a colon connects an introductory thought with additional detail or explanation. The use of a colon in the sentence above tells you that the writer sees the second half as additional detail. That is, because a 6th grader knows how to use the comma, using it does not look like a parent edited.

Woosh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who don’t use the Oxford comma are monsters.

+1 The Oxford comma is the only area of my life that I'm a zealot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg - it’s not that deep.
It does not matter.

It does if it is only one sign of a lack of precision that also shows up elsewhere in someone's writing. I teach, and my best writers over the years have been Oxford comma users. When I see a student paper that doesn't use it, I'm on alert for other problems.

So you can’t see problems unless your one nitpick alerts you? Telling on yourself there.

Oh, no, believe me. But you rarely have to get more than a few sentences into a student paper before you see them either use the Oxford comma or omit it. It's interesting to see how this one 'tell' plays out.

[Anonymous]

Former English teacher here. These were my rules:
1) don't use passive voice
2) don't use semicolons
3) don't use adverbs
4) eschew obfuscation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't its use just indicate that you have adopted a set of established rules? For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style, which many college professors will request for papers, requires the use of the serial/Oxfor comman. As a writer and reader, I am just thrown off when writers don't use it. There's almost always no good reason not to use it.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can provide examples of how using it ever has a downside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't its use just indicate that you have adopted a set of established rules? For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style, which many college professors will request for papers, requires the use of the serial/Oxfor comman. As a writer and reader, I am just thrown off when writers don't use it. There's almost always no good reason not to use it.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can provide examples of how using it ever has a downside.

You upset people who don't like Oxford commas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't its use just indicate that you have adopted a set of established rules? For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style, which many college professors will request for papers, requires the use of the serial/Oxfor comman. As a writer and reader, I am just thrown off when writers don't use it. There's almost always no good reason not to use it.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can provide examples of how using it ever has a downside.

Rarely, but there are cases. A pp upthread provided an example that said something like “I’d like to thank my father, Jeff Steele, and the anonymous users of DCUM.”

I’m a writer and would probably just rewrite that sentence so it’s not an issue, but that is an example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't its use just indicate that you have adopted a set of established rules? For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style, which many college professors will request for papers, requires the use of the serial/Oxfor comman. As a writer and reader, I am just thrown off when writers don't use it. There's almost always no good reason not to use it.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can provide examples of how using it ever has a downside.

You upset people who don't like Oxford commas.

Don't threaten me with a good time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former English teacher here. These were my rules:
1) don't use passive voice
2) don't use semicolons
3) don't use adverbs
4) eschew obfuscation

Hmm... Semicolons are excellent when used well - a way to express a complicated thought in a dynamic way. And adverbs give some action to a word. It's too bad English teachers today are discouraging writing that's exciting and interesting.

Obviously, I am pro-Oxford comma. It's not used very often these days, but when I see it I think there is well-read person. And it makes me like them.

It probably doesn't make a difference for the 25 year old that's reading the college essay though.

But the Oxford comma... it's classy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't its use just indicate that you have adopted a set of established rules? For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style, which many college professors will request for papers, requires the use of the serial/Oxfor comman. As a writer and reader, I am just thrown off when writers don't use it. There's almost always no good reason not to use it.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can provide examples of how using it ever has a downside.

Rarely, but there are cases. A pp upthread provided an example that said something like “I’d like to thank my father, Jeff Steele, and the anonymous users of DCUM.”

I’m a writer and would probably just rewrite that sentence so it’s not an issue, but that is an example.

I disagree that the lack of Oxford comma would make the sentence less confusing. If it was always used in cases except in cases where the first two items are essentially a parenthetical leaving it out would be useful, but since so many people choose not to use it even when dad isn’t jeff, its absence in this sentence provides no clarity.

[Anonymous]

grammarly auto-corrects even inside the Common App (I was shocked by that!)