Have you ever come across the ‘Oxford comma’? If you haven’t, here’s a short explanation. When you have a list of three or more items it is normal to separate the items with a comma: ‘The coat came in blue, white, black, red and green.’ But the ‘Oxford comma’ means adding an extra comma between the last item on the list and the word ‘and’ as in: ‘…blue, white, black, red, and green.’ The Oxford English Dictionary says the Oxford comma is: ‘a comma immediately preceding the conjunction in a list of items’.It is called the ‘Oxford comma’ because it is the house style of Oxford University Press. They prefer this extra comma, they say, ‘to avoid ambiguity’. And I quite like it myself, although others may disagree. One person who does disagree is the UK Health Secretary Therese Coffey who has issued a style guide for her department calling on staff to avoid ‘jargon’ in their reports – including the famous ‘Oxford comma’. I’m all in favour of clear language that avoids jargon, and cliches, and ‘corporate speak’ – but the Oxford comma does not fall into that category and should be encouraged not banned. If you want your writing to be clear then (in my view) it is better to use more, not fewer, commas. The founding editor of the New Yorker Harold Ross was famous for going through copy for the magazine and inserting additional commas – all in the name of clarity. He did it so often James Thurber said that with Harold Ross they were ‘living in the age of the comma man’. But Ross was right. We want to be clear. And commas help make our meaning clear. Therese Coffey is wrong, and the style guide of the Oxford University Press is right. Use the Oxford comma to avoid ambiguity. I’ve said before: be kind to the comma – it is your friend. And that means in lists it is a good idea to use the Oxford comma.