In this grammar refresh, we're going to look at something called the serial comma or also known as
the Oxford comma.
Now, this has more to do with writing than it does speaking, but it is a good thing to know as it
comes up a lot.
And it's very useful for people who are in either academics or work in journalism or something like
that, so it's always good to remind yourself and refresh about this idea.
And so this Oxford comma or serial comma is when you use.
A comma, you use a comma before the end or before the or at the end of a list.
And now there are some.
Style guide.
That do not require this, but in my opinion, it's always good to use this method.
It's always good to use this Oxford comma because it will remove any confusion.
So, for example, the Chicago Manual of Style and the APA style, very popular writing styles they
do require.
This Oxford comma or this serial comma, but for example, the Associated Press Stylebook, they don't
require, you know, depending on where you're working and what style guide your work uses or your school
uses.
So there will be different requirements.
But I would say generally you should use it because it will help make your writing clear.
But let's look at.
Our example here, see what it's like with or without a serial comma, the first.
Sentence is the sentences are the same, the only difference is.
Serial comma or no serial number, the first one is without the Jeff is fond of basketball.
Rugby and tennis.
So we don't have a serial come to me when I read this.
It sounds like rugby and tennis are together, right?
Jack is fond of basketball, rugby in tennis.
Rugby in tennis feel like one item in this list without that serial comma, but in the second example
with the serial comma, Jeff is fond of basketball, rugby and tennis.
Now it feels like I'm separating each one.
So that's why that serial comma is important.
And you can see how this can cause more confusion, right, with the sports and our examples in rugby
and tennis, even though it sounds like it's one item, you know.
We can still tell their different sports, but if this was food, if you said Jeff is fond of eggs.
And chocolate, right?
If I don't have that cereal, comma, between cheese and chocolate, it's going to make it sound like
he likes cheese and chocolate together as one item.
And so this cereal is very useful.
I would recommend using them unless specifically told not to.
In this Granma refresh, we're looking at quotation marks and specifically using quotation marks to
cite someone's response.
So we're going to use this to show that someone said something a.
But we do not use this quotation marks if it's not a word for word response, right?
We're not actually showing.
What they said is so we're just giving their interpretation of their speech in our sentence.
We're not going to use these quotation marks.
But let's look at our examples, make this clear.
In the first sentence, it says, and turned around and whispered.
It can't be true.
By bitterly.
And so and I turned around and whispered, It can't be true by Embitter.
So here it can't be true, is in quotation marks, right?
It is in quotation marks.
Because this is what she actually said or this is what she whispered, but in the next sentence, Evan
wasn't his usual self that day, so he said no to our invitation.
Here you can see there's no quotations because we're not implying we're not showing his actual response.
We're just we're just giving you information about what he said.
He said no.
But if we had quotations around it, it would be a direct quote, it would be a direct quote of his
response.