Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren fog Obam here for all of the Facebook posts that fail to use correct punctuation, and for all of the grammar geeks who insist on pointing out those errors. There's some compelling evidence that, well, the geeks are sort of right. In a labor dispute in Maine was decided based entirely on the lack of an Oxford comma. Before we delve into the case, though, let's examine the Oxford comma,
also known as the serial comma. This punctuation mark is the final comma in a list of things. So if I were to write I love studying octopuses, comma, fungi comma, bacteria comma, and snails, that final comma is the Oxford comma. But it's acceptable in the English language to forego that final comma. In many cases, your meaning will still be clear, But some examples show how confusing leaving it off can
potentially be. One popular demonstration is the sentence this book is dedicated to my parents Comma iron rand and God. Without a comma between the last two items in that list, it's ambiguous whether the author is thinking three entities, or whether they're thinking their parents and then clarifying that their parents are iron Rand and God. Thus, an Oxford comma can help prevent confusion by separating specific items in a list. This comma is called the Oxford comma because it's required
by the Oxford University Presses Style Guidelines. There are other equally respected and used style guides, like the Associated Press Style Guide, which prohibit the use of the serial comma. Examples of both existing media with news sources preferring a pe style and other publications relying on the Oxford comma. There are also plenty of passionate debates about the merits of each style, elevating the comma to celebrity status among
Grammarians and the like. And as I said at the top, this comma was recently at the center of a labor dispute between drivers and the company for whom they worked. While the drivers insisted that they deserved over time pay for delivering dairy products, the company disagreed, pointing instead to a state law that spelled outwork activities that did not lead to overtime pay. Quote and follow with me here.
This is awkward out loud. The canning comma processing, comma preserving, comma freezing, comma drying, comma marketing, comma storing comma packing for shipment or distribution of agricultural produce, meat and fish products,
and perishable foods. Okay, The answer the judge determined existed in the first sentence in that phrase packing for shipment or distribution without an Oxford comma before the word or, it could be interpreted to mean that because the drivers weren't packing items intended for either shipment or distribution, they could be paid over time. But with the comma, then
the sentence would have contained separate activities. Packing for shipment would have in its own distinct activity, as distribution would have been. With packing and distribution listed as two separate things that didn't warrant over time, the dairy driver's case would have been lost, but because of the lack of a comma, it wasn't. When labor laws are unclear, the justice system is designed to benefit the laborers, said the
judge who ruled in favor of the dairy drivers. The judge wrote, in a statement, for want of a comma, we have this case. Today's episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radios How stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other nitpicky topics, be kind to your fellow humans on the Internet. Visit our home planet,
how stuff works dot com and for more. Podcasts for my heart Radio visiting the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.