Oxford Comma trivia
Oxford Comma Mini Quiz
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
The "Oxford comma" serves what specific grammatical function in a written list?
Placed before the final conjunction in a list of three or more items, this comma clarifies that the last two items are separate entities rather than a grouped pair.
The "Oxford comma" goes by what alternative name among professional editors?
The term "serial comma" describes its grammatical use in a series of items. The popular Oxford moniker stems from its historical enforcement by the Oxford University Press.
A missing "Oxford comma" in a Maine law cost a dairy company millions of dollars over what dispute?
Delivery drivers for a Maine dairy sued for back wages. The missing punctuation made it legally ambiguous whether packing and distributing were separate exempt tasks.
What employee benefit cost a dairy company $5 million because a state law lacked an "Oxford comma"?
The ambiguous state law exempted workers from overtime for "packing for shipment or distribution." Without a serial comma, drivers who solely distributed goods won the case.