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What Is the Oxford Comma Rule? The Oxford comma rule was created in 1905 by a printer named Horace Hart.Hart updated his style guide for Oxford University Press and required his employees to ...
The serial comma (for example the comma before and in "ham, chips, and eggs") is optional; be sensitive to possible ambiguity arising from thoughtless use or thoughtless avoidance, and be consistent within a given article. Avoid comma splices. Picture captions should not end in a full stop (a period) unless they are complete sentences.
For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside. Other examples: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
"Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series. Put a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series, however, if an integral element of the series requires a conjunction: I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast.
Do not follow quoted words or fragments with commas inside the quotation marks, except where a longer quotation has been broken up and the comma is part of the full quotation. Correct: "I began to change, opening the way to confidence and courage", said Turner. Correct: "I began to change," said Turner, "opening the way to confidence and courage."
Boldface is often applied to the first occurrence of the article's title word or phrase in the lead.This is also done at the first occurrence of a term (commonly a synonym in the lead) that redirects to the article or one of its subsections, whether the term appears in the lead or not (see § Other uses, below).
Many commas are grammatically required, and many that aren't are stylistically preferred in formal writing. Furthermore, some low- register uses of commas are incorrect. Insertion or removal of a single comma can often totally change the meaning of a sentence, while in other cases having virtually no effect at all.
In general, the comma shows that the words immediately before the comma are less closely or exclusively linked grammatically to those immediately after the comma than they might be otherwise. The comma performs a number of functions in English writing. It is used in generally similar ways in other languages, particularly European ones, although ...