A hundred years ago the college professor of a lit class I was taking in college would take one point off our grade every time we used an Oxford comma. “It’s redundant!” he would say. “It’s like saying and and.” So, to get a good grade, I forced myself to stop using them for a series of only 3 items. I still used them for series of more than 3 items. But I slowly started using them again. Then I submitted a few articles to magazines that got published but all the Oxford commas were edited out of the articles by the magazines. So I stopped using it for series of 3 items unless it was crucial for clarity. I noticed that many of my favorite novelists did not use it but a few did (especially if they were British). All the style guides on my book shelf said that the use of the Oxford comma in a series of only 3 items was redundant but acceptable as a style choice — provided that it was used consistently. Then I read some articles by pompous self-proclaimed experts who said that it must always be used; that it was an unbreakable rule. That is when I stopped using it again., except in series of 4 or more items. I like breaking rules but the truth of the matter is that I really don’t care.
It used to irritate the bejeebers out of me when I saw someone spell gray with an ‘e’ (the Old English spelling) as opposed to an ‘a’ (the American spelling). But I finally got over that. I figured that if someone spelled it with an ‘e’ then they were probably from England or Ireland and they can spell it anyway they want to. Just like Americans can spell it the American way if they want to.
Linguistic style differences really don’t bother me much anymore. I just don’t care. Show me a rule that some people try to cram down the throats of other people, however, and I will try to figure out a way to break that rule. Hopefully, I will get over that someday, too. (The comma in that last sentence before the word, too, happens to be grammatically correct even though not many people use it. I don’t see any grammar police chasing them down.)
By the way, great article P.G. I hope you haven’t been scared away from fiction by your friend.
