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Does anyone else feel the Oxford Comma has damaged your ability to write?

Mithril-blade

Mithril-blade

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I have grammarly, and I refuse to pay for the version that let's me turn the oxford comma off because that's something it should come with to begin with, so I have to constantly look through what I write and dismiss all the oxford comma suggestions.

However, since getting Grammarly, I feel like I have less of a sense for my commas than I did before. As if the whole freaking thing has slowly corroding my mind and destroying my ability to actually use English well. :(

Does anyone else have a similar experience?
 
Fredd0367 said:
I'll be the uneducated idiot and ask.

What is an Oxford comma?
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Click to shrink...

The comma that you put in the penultimate place of a list of three or more items. It

Like, if I started counting of what you need for bread, it would be flour, eggs, and milk with an Oxford comma. As opposed to flour, eggs and milk.

Why is this important? Because it robs you of the ability to make certain distinctions with commas. Like, if you wrote "James went with the singer, Joey and James" the oxford comma immediately implies that the singer is Joey "James went with the singer, Joey, and James".

Which, conversely, means that you can't imply relations through the use of commas because it's all just part of a list!

It's not like it's necessary or anything, but Grammarly DEMANDS that you use it.
 
Mithril-blade said:
Why is this important? Because it robs you of the ability to make certain distinctions with commas. Like, if you wrote "James went with the singer, Joey and James" the oxford comma immediately implies that the singer is Joey "James went with the singer, Joey, and James".
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Click to shrink...
"James went with Joey, James, and the singer." That was easy.
 
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