Non-restrictive clause and phrases don’t change the sentence meaning if they are left out. The name comes from the fact that it's used in a series (list). It’s the information that specifies it’s not just any man, but the one who is coming to dinner, that lets us know who the man is. The serial comma (aka Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is a term that describes the use of a comma before the conjunction in a list of three or more items (e.g., the comma before and in pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon). In this example, “the man” could be anyone. Despite being named after a British University, the Oxford comma (the comma used before and in lists (e.g., I like wookies, ewoks, and droids)) is not considered standard in UK English because only one style guide (Oxford) recommends it. The man who was coming to dinner was Sidney Poitier. A serial comma eliminates the possibility of misreading, so even if you’re not using serial commas in your writing, make an exception for sentences like this: I dedicate this award to my parents, Jane Austen, and Albert Einstein. In other words if the clause is omitted, the meaning of the sentence changes. An Oxford comma is sometimes called a series comma, Harvard comma, or final comma in American English and is a comma placed before the last item in a list. The restrictive clause “provides information…essential to the meaning of the sentence” (6.22). Adding a comma after “Queen” makes each of the items clearly distinct.Ĭlauses and Phrases: Restrictive and Non-Restrictive In this sentence, the reader could easily misread this to mean your parents are the Queen and the Prime Minister of England. I had lunch with my parents, the Queen and the Prime Minister of England. Omitting a serial comma can create ambiguity: It is not necessary to include the page number(s) in the citation, but it may be helpful, especially if the source is very long (e.g., a short passage from a whole book).If there is an ampersand in the sentence, there is a comma before the ampersand, such as in a citation (in APA format):Ĭolonies of ants have long held a distinct position in ecclesiastical art (Reuben, Johnson, & Carlyle). If material is paraphrased (i.e., restated in your own words), always provide the author and date in the in-text citation. A serial comma simply means that a comma will separate each element in a series of three or more, even before the coordinating conjunctions and and before or. If the quotation includes more than 40 words, it should be treated as a block quotation, meaning that it is displayed in a freestanding block of text without quotation marks. It’s the last comma in a series of commas before the end of a list, and its use is highly contentious among writers and editorial publications. If the quotation includes fewer than 40 words, incorporate it in text and enclose it with double quotation marks. An Oxford comma is sometimes called a series comma, Harvard comma, or final comma in American English and is a comma placed before the last item in a list. Thus, the above list can be written without a comma, with no effect on the meaning. The peculiarity of the serial comma in English is that it is not necessary to use it in most cases. The first punctuation symbol used in the list is ordinary, while the second one is the Oxford comma. Material quoted directly from another source (i.e., reproduced word for word from works by other authors, your own previously published work, material replicated from a test item, and/or verbatim instructions to participants) must always provide the author, year, and specific page(s) in the text citation (for sources that don’t have page numbers, see the APA Style Blog post on citing a Kindle listed below) and include a complete entry in the reference list. The Oxford comma example: bread, butter, and jelly.
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