Grammar

Language is a powerful thing. Take for instance the diminutive apostrophe. Used incorrectly it can turn a business that knows its shit, into a business that knows it’s shit. Such a confidence crusher that one little mistake, and one that spell check will never save you from.

This week I stumbled across a grand debate, which has been ongoing for a while now, about the Oxford Comma. Also called a Serial or Harvard Comma, it is the optional comma used before the final “and” when writing lists. I’ve never been a big fan of using it. I’ve no idea why I’ve never been a big fan, I guess it just seemed superfluous, cluttered up the sentence, added in an extra pause that could better be used elsewhere. As a proud Canadian I use the British rule when questions of grammar come up (although I have been known to cheat on occasion).

Then, after seeing this cartoon, it got me thinking.

While I consider myself a careful writer, I do have a bad habit of leaving part of my edited storytelling inside my head, so what is obvious to me, may not always be so obvious to my readers, especially those I don’t know and who don’t know me very well. And while I would get a real kick out someone adding a whole new level to my story because of something as minor as a comma that I’ve chosen not to use, I guess the question really becomes a matter of whether I should add that little something extra in, so that the true meaning of my story can be preserved.

Personally, if I’d wanted JFK and Stalin to be strippers I’d have emphasized the titillating fact by using a colon in place of the comma, thusly:

We invited the strippers: JFK and Stalin.

I think it’s more punchy that way, but then I suppose that’s a different grammatical debate for another day.