I tend to use a lot of commas; probably using them a bit too frequently. \u00a0But there is method in it all, and the use of the so-called serial (or 'Oxford') comma can remove ambiguity. \u00a0Here's the Guardian style guide showing why this can be\u00a0important:<\/p>\n
A comma before the final \u201cand\u201d in lists: straightforward ones (he ate ham, eggs and chips) do not need one, but sometimes it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea). \u00a0Sometimes it is essential: compare<\/p>\n
I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis, and JK Rowling<\/em><\/p>\n
with<\/p>\n
I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis and JK Rowling<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
All this has surfaced because of an arcane legal case in Maine about overtime payment. \u00a0As the Times put it this morning:<\/p>\n
\"The\u00a0state\u2019s law exempts the following activities from the requirement to pay workers overtime: \u201cThe canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It seems clear that State legal drafters may have meant\u00a0to write: \"...\u00a0for shipment, or distribution.\", but they didn't include the comma \u2013 and lost the case. \u00a0The judge noted:<\/p>\n
\u201cthe exemption\u2019s scope is actually not so clear in this regard\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There you are \u2013 a diversion. \u00a0And I'd really meant to write about the US draft budget with its proposals to\u00a0...<\/p>\n
\n
- cut all funding for climate-change research at Nasa<\/li>\n
- cut all federal financing for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts<\/li>\n
- cut all the $3 billion programme that helps poor Americans to heat their homes will end, and all\u00a0spending on items such as affordable housing and homelessness schemes<\/li>\n
- cut all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which currently receives $450 million a year<\/li>\n
- cut all\u00a0payments to the UN Green Climate Fund, part of Washington\u2019s commitment to the Paris climate agreement.cut spending on the State Department and the Agency for International Development (US Aid) \u00a0by $10 billion, or 28 per cent<\/li>\n
- cut contributions to UN peacekeeping<\/li>\n
- cut payments to the World Bank by $650 million<\/li>\n
- cut funding for the National Institutes of Health, the world\u2019s largest public funder of biomedical research, by 18 per cent<\/li>\n
- cut the Environmental Protection Agency funding by\u00a031 per cent cut to $5.7 billion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Of course, this is, as yet, just a shopping list which the Senate will have views about. \u00a060% votes are needed for most of this, so we can expect lots of compromise \u2013 and commas.<\/p>\n