Revision Prompt – The Oxford Comma

You’ve heard of writing prompts, now we have revision prompts! Each prompt will give you a specific writing issue to check for in your WIP, along with tips on how to fix each. Going through this process one issue at a time will not only help polish your current novel but will also teach you specific ways to improve your writing for your next story.

THE OXFORD COMMA:  When writing a list of items, a comma needs to come before the “and” before the last item. Without this comma, the sentence could possibly be misread.

EXAMPLES:

Without the Oxford Comma:

We invited my parents, the king and queen.

(Can be read that the parents are the king and queen.)

With the Oxford Comma:

We invited my parents, the king, and the queen.

(Now there is no doubt that this is a list of three people.)

Without the Oxford Comma:

Highlights of the tour included seeing the pope, an 800 year old mummy and a rare Greek statue.

(Can be read that the pope is an 800 year old mummy and a rare Greek statue.)

With the Oxford Comma:

Highlights of the tour included seeing the pope, an 800  year old mummy, and a rare Greek statue.

(Now there is no doubt that three highlights are stated in this sentence.)

While misunderstandings like this won’t happen every time the Oxford comma isn’t used, the possibility is there, especially with complex sentence structure. Using the Oxford comma You can see that when a strong verb that better describes the action than the wimpy, generic verb, no adverb is needed because it is inferred within the meaning of the strong verb.

SEARCH FOR: Within your word processing software, do a search of your manuscript for “and.” If it is used in a list of items, add a comma before the “and.” This will create better clarity when writing a list in your manuscript.

One of the keys to publication is a willingness to learn. We hope our Revising Prompts will help you learn more about the craft of writing and speed you on your way to publication.