In journalism, commas in a list are frowned on (AP Style outright bans them), and simplistic writing is encouraged. While journalists are, by far, some of the best writers out there, they have to adhere to a certain style—and not just AP or inverted pyramid. Their writing itself must be presented a specific way, or the piece gets tossed back at them like flotsam. “Your word count is too high,” is an often-heard complaint from news editors. “Re-arrange your first four paragraphs and cut back on the prose,” et cetera.

In the midst of all this, the little guys are often completely left in the dust. It doesn’t help that they’re often misunderstood, too. So let’s take a look at the two things Words by a Pro writers love most: the Oxford comma and the semicolon.

For the Love of Commas

In the newsroom, it’s common to find two opposing camps when it comes to the comma in a list: Those who are for it, and those who are totally against it. There really isn’t any middle ground; this innocuous little guy is utterly polarizing.

To those in the for camp, it’s baffling why anyone would argue against it. Commas in a list add clarity, and who doesn’t like that? (On a side note, you’d think AP Style would agree considering news should always be clear, but that’s another discussion.)

There’s plenty of hilarious examples out there in which good ol’ Oxford would have helped immensely, so we’ll let them do the talking for us. Frankly, it’s time the world started using this little guy continuously.

Semicolons Aren’t Just a Trendy Tattoo

We love, love, love semicolons here at Words by a Pro. They add so much to any sentence, and they’re possibly one of the best-looking pieces of punctuation out there; really, why wouldn’t you use them?

Quite simply, it’s because people are scared of them. For some reason, throughout history, this beautiful little piece of punctuation has been so misunderstood that it’s nearly anathema. For the record, when you use a conjunction, you can often use a semicolon, especially if it’s the word and. A semicolon merely wants to bring together two things that are related—really, it just wants everyone to hug. It’s the world’s most misunderstood cuddler.

An example: The dog was whining at the base of the tree, as its ball was stuck. Or: The dog was whining at the base of the tree; its ball was stuck. Try it with multiple sentences, and you’ll find that it works a heck of a lot of the time (it could’ve worked right there!). After a while, it’s just fun to see how much you can condense with a semicolon (it also could have combined that last sentence with the one before it).

Or…maybe that’s just us.

Anne King, copy editor