MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

That is our plan, with some flexibility on due date, either Friday before break or Monday after. DO NOT STRESS about this.  Here is an assignment sheet to guide you.  Come on Monday with an idea to write about.  More about this in class. Students report that this assignment is pleasant and a break from drafting coherent prose.

Before we turn in all the coffee cup memos, let's consider this image to help us with a word of nearly no specificity. Does this image make sense at all to you?  You could show your parents or grandparents.

Oxford comma helps from science, now. Consider these examples from Sarah Lichter.  Here is one from my writing practice recently:

Conservation biologists look at two approaches to biodiversity losses, species counts in the tropics and changing distribution maps.

What about this one that the protodoctors among us might say to a patient:

Your cancer can be treated with chemotherapy, surgery or immunotherapy.

More Oxford comma information (some of which is at the Wikipedia entry) now. Note, much of this content circled around pedagogy circles even before Wikipedia was built.  Think on that sort of citation problem.

Oxford comma (wars): Look at these examples, to jump start the lesson.

To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

To my parents, J.K. Rowling and God.

To my parents, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

OR

In a newspaper account of a documentary about Merle Haggard:

Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.

These two preceding examples are from Theresa Hayden. Here is another doosie that cries out for a serial or Oxford comma.

 Here is another doosie that cries out for a serial or Oxford comma.

The Times once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov documentary, noting that

"highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."

Now, to be clear, the serial comma does not always solve ambiguity problems:

They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a cook –

• They went to Oregon with Betty, who was a maid and a cook. (One person)
• They went to Oregon with Betty, both a maid and a cook. (One person)
• They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and cook. (One person)
• They went to Oregon with Betty (a maid) and a cook. (Two people)
• They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and with a cook. (Two people)
• They went to Oregon with Betty – a maid – and a cook. (Two people)
• They went to Oregon with the maid Betty and a cook. (Two people)
• They went to Oregon with a cook and Betty, a maid. (Two people)
• They went to Oregon with Betty as well as a maid and a cook. (Three people)
• They went to Oregon with Betty and a maid and a cook. (Three people)
• They went to Oregon with Betty, one maid and a cook. (Three people)
• They went to Oregon with a maid, a cook, and Betty. (Three people)

We can also look at the grocery list problem: 

buying  bread, jam, coffee, cream, juice, eggs, and bacon. VS

eating toast and jam, coffee and cream, juice, and bacon and eggs