I'm using grammarly.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

It "installs" a lot of commas, smh.

[wryter2000]

1. Grammarly must be my soulmate, then

I've always admired my parents, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the Pope
I've always admired my parents, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Pope

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. Clearly different meanings.

[wryter2000]

4. Sorry I edited my post

But that was the point. A comma can change the meaning of a sentence. My second examples are better.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. How did adding the Oxford Comma change the meaning in this instance?

[Cirque du So-What]

8. The second version implies that the writer's parents are RBG & the pope

The first merely states admiration for both individuals.

[Ms. Toad]

23. States admiration for all 4 individuals:

Parents, RGB, and the pope.

[GOPBasher]

6. Ahh, the Oxford comma.

1. Today I watched YouTube videos of the president, a fascist, and a traitor.
2. Today I watched YouTube videos of the president, a fascist and a traitor.

Without consistent use of the Oxford comma, that last statement is ambiguous. You might think I'm talking about 3 different people.

[Cirque du So-What]

9. Despite my appreciation of the Oxford comma,

I actually like the second sentence better.

[csziggy]

12. The second sentence can stand alone

The first could mean Trump, Stephen Miller, and Michael Flynn.

The second could just be Trump.

I'm not sure which I think is 'better' - I guess it depends on the context and who is being designated.

[GOPBasher]

33. Ditto.

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Commas are also for pacing.

[cwydro]

30. It's like the "eats, shoots and leaves" book lol.

[hlthe2b]

2. It absolutely HATES my ellipses! LOL

Tough!

Oh, and...

[erronis]

7. I love my ... And my ---, and randomly scattered semi-colonoscopies.

In fact I usually end every thing I send out with ...
(I think it means that I have more to say...)

[StarryNite]

11. ellipsis

I love 'em...I use them all the time...

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Me...

too!


But I sometimes allow my dot count to ..... runneth over!

[wryter2000]

19. Me, too

Plus I use a lot of em dashes in my fiction.

If George was telling the truth--and it appeared he was--they were in a lot of trouble.

I don't know how to put an em dash in a post here, so I used two dashes.

[Alacritous Crier]

21. Me too . . .

I know on a Mac it's option/shift/dash — — —

[Cirque du So-What]

10. I couldn't get through the day without a couple of well-placed ellipses

There are instances where absolutely nothing else works as well.

[stopdiggin]

15. thanks! after years of being pretty sure

there was no hope .. and I was heading to usage/grammar purgatory (or at least lunch room detention) ...
I am validated! ------ ------

[tavernier]

31. ...and then he tied her up...

to the railroad tracks... and then... ...

[ellie]

13. It really does!

[captain queeg]

14. I'd never heard of the Oxford comma till recently.

Was talking with my son who just started college. He said the Oxford comma was the only thing he got out of HS English class.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. It's the one you want to stay with unless you're using the Associated Press Stylebook.

.

Almost all writing styles use the Oxford comma, which is knows as a serial or series comma.

Unless you are writing a news article or your professor instructs not to use it, it's best to include it.

.

[LuckyCharms]

20. The first sentence reads better to me.

But I remember that I was taught in grade school not to use a comma when you get to the last "thing" in the group.

So now I'm paranoid about typing a sentence as shown in the first example because I'm afraid a teacher is going to come over and whack me on the head with a metal chalk holder.

[captain queeg]

22. Catholic school?

Of course even public schools when I was a kid allowed corporal punishment. Whacks with a paddle from teachers or principals. But I had a science teacher in 6th grade who used to go off, and he’d throw whatever was handy at you. Usually it was a board eraser but sometimes he yank a shoe off and throw it at you. The worst were the Lincoln book ends he had in his desk. Hollow metal but probably 8 inches tall. He never hit anyone with it in my class but that could have done some serious injury. He’d never last nowadays but I guess we didn’t know enough to have a parent complain.

[Ms. Toad]

24. Whoever told you that was wrong.

Omitting the comma can change the meaning of the sentence. Including it in a list never does.

[hunter]

25. I just blast the words out and hope for the best.

If I let my OCD perfectionism in on my writing I don't write anything.

I also like to believe I'm participating in the evolution of our language.

A language that is pinned down by too many rules can't evolve.

English is so widespread because it is promiscuous. It will hop into bed with anyone and pick up their habits, sometimes for the worse, but mostly for the better.

[wryter2000]

26. If someone ever makes

"Me and Jeff went to lunch" standard, the perpetrator should be hanged from the tallest tree and left so the ravens can eat his flesh.

[hunter]

27. I have a fancy university Biology degree with a minor in English.

The English Chair at my university didn't like me. She wouldn't sign off on my minor. I don't blame her. I was crazy.

A dean of my college pencil whipped me thru because he wanted me to go away. He said, "Hunter, I think you should go to graduate school... but NOT HERE!" (The first time I was "asked" to take time off from university was for fighting with one of his teaching assistants...)

After about a year working in a medical lab I got a job teaching science in a big city.

Half the kids in my classes could hardly read and write.

I cheered these students on whenever they wrote ANYTHING, encouraging them write more.

The lost kids wrote nothing.

I met my wife teaching.

High expectations work in some situations. My own children are high achievers who rejected academic scholarships to schools of the sort unscrupulous parents pay half a million dollars to get their own kids into.

It's the children and adults who write nothing we have to worry about. Are they afraid to write? How did that happen?

I loved my seventh and eighth grade English teachers, in spite of the "C"s and "U"s (unsatisfactories) they gave me, but maybe I'm a masochist.

I quit high school but it wasn't anything my English teachers did.

[wryter2000]

32. I guess I'm not talking about children

But educated adults. In any case, my post was about an authority making it standard.

[Disaffected]

29. + a googleplex n/t

[marie999]

28. We never used the comma before the and back in the 50s.

I just started using it about 6 months ago. I like Grammarly.