Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren fog Obam here for all of the Facebook posts
Speaker 1: that fail to use correct punctuation, and for all of
Speaker 1: the grammar geeks who insist on pointing out those errors.
Speaker 1: There's some compelling evidence that, well, the geeks are sort
Speaker 1: of right. In a labor dispute in Maine was decided
Speaker 1: based entirely on the lack of an Oxford comma. Before
Speaker 1: we delve into the case, though, let's examine the Oxford comma,
Speaker 1: also known as the serial comma. This punctuation mark is
Speaker 1: the final comma in a list of things. So if
Speaker 1: I were to write I love studying octopuses, comma, fungi comma,
Speaker 1: bacteria comma, and snails, that final comma is the Oxford comma.
Speaker 1: But it's acceptable in the English language to forego that
Speaker 1: final comma. In many cases, your meaning will still be clear,
Speaker 1: But some examples show how confusing leaving it off can
Speaker 1: potentially be. One popular demonstration is the sentence this book
Speaker 1: is dedicated to my parents Comma iron rand and God.
Speaker 1: Without a comma between the last two items in that list,
Speaker 1: it's ambiguous whether the author is thinking three entities, or
Speaker 1: whether they're thinking their parents and then clarifying that their
Speaker 1: parents are iron Rand and God. Thus, an Oxford comma
Speaker 1: can help prevent confusion by separating specific items in a list.
Speaker 1: This comma is called the Oxford comma because it's required
Speaker 1: by the Oxford University Presses Style Guidelines. There are other
Speaker 1: equally respected and used style guides, like the Associated Press
Speaker 1: Style Guide, which prohibit the use of the serial comma.
Speaker 1: Examples of both existing media with news sources preferring a
Speaker 1: pe style and other publications relying on the Oxford comma.
Speaker 1: There are also plenty of passionate debates about the merits
Speaker 1: of each style, elevating the comma to celebrity status among
Speaker 1: Grammarians and the like. And as I said at the top,
Speaker 1: this comma was recently at the center of a labor
Speaker 1: dispute between drivers and the company for whom they worked.
Speaker 1: While the drivers insisted that they deserved over time pay
Speaker 1: for delivering dairy products, the company disagreed, pointing instead to
Speaker 1: a state law that spelled outwork activities that did not
Speaker 1: lead to overtime pay. Quote and follow with me here.
Speaker 1: This is awkward out loud. The canning comma processing, comma preserving,
Speaker 1: comma freezing, comma drying, comma marketing, comma storing comma packing
Speaker 1: for shipment or distribution of agricultural produce, meat and fish products,
Speaker 1: and perishable foods. Okay, The answer the judge determined existed
Speaker 1: in the first sentence in that phrase packing for shipment
Speaker 1: or distribution without an Oxford comma before the word or,
Speaker 1: it could be interpreted to mean that because the drivers
Speaker 1: weren't packing items intended for either shipment or distribution, they
Speaker 1: could be paid over time. But with the comma, then
Speaker 1: the sentence would have contained separate activities. Packing for shipment
Speaker 1: would have in its own distinct activity, as distribution would
Speaker 1: have been. With packing and distribution listed as two separate
Speaker 1: things that didn't warrant over time, the dairy driver's case
Speaker 1: would have been lost, but because of the lack of
Speaker 1: a comma, it wasn't. When labor laws are unclear, the
Speaker 1: justice system is designed to benefit the laborers, said the
Speaker 1: judge who ruled in favor of the dairy drivers. The
Speaker 1: judge wrote, in a statement, for want of a comma,
Speaker 1: we have this case. Today's episode was written by Laurie L.
Speaker 1: Dove and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How stuff Works. For more in
Speaker 1: this and lots of other nitpicky topics, be kind to
Speaker 1: your fellow humans on the Internet. Visit our home planet,
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and for more. Podcasts for
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