Once upon a time there was a fellow who died, and his will bequeathed his estate to his three children. Trouble was, people read the will and were confused about how much each child was to receive.
Let’s call the children Moe, Larry, and Curly (not their real names, to be sure). Their names were listed in that order in the will.
The confusion existed because the key sentence read:
“Estate to be distributed among Moe, Larry and Curly.”
The judge read the will and decided that Moe would get half, and Larry and Curly would split the difference…just because one comma was missing.
The comma is called an Oxford comma. (It’s sometimes called a serial comma.) It’s placed right before the “and” conjunction at the end of a sentence lists three or more items.
Had the key sentence in the estate case had an Oxford comma, it would have read:
“Estate to be distributed among Moe, Larry, and Curly.”
Under this arrangement, Moe, Larry, and Curly would each have received a third of the estate. Potentially a lot of money gained, or lost, for want of a comma!
Estate cases aren’t the only ones where serial commas play an important role. In March, the New York Times published a story describing how the lack of a serial comma could cost impact a company involved in an overtime labor dispute.
But not everyone agrees with the need for Oxford commas. Associated Press style, for instance, would remove the comma: Moe, Larry and Curly. For this reason, many writers will not use Oxford commas because their organizations, publications, and web sites follow Associated Press style.
Perhaps the best way forward is to be mindful of your organizational standards and write around them as you can. In the estate case, simply adding the word “equally” might make a difference. In this example, there’s no Oxford comma, but “equally” helps to ensure clarity.
“Estate to be distributed equally between Moe, Larry and Curly.”
If you have a list of more than three items, each of which is to receive equal weight, also consider using a bulleted list, such as:
“Estate to be distributed equally between:
- Moe
- Larry
- Curly
- Shemp”
