Missing Semicolon

rogersgeorge on September 18th, 2021

This sentence is also a good argument that you should use the Oxford comma—the one before “and” in a list.

The inevitable centerpieces of fall’s new-hardware season are new iPhones, Windows 11 PCs and other devices from Facebook, Amazon and Google.

https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-login-6392efaa-4622-4de3-b5d4-909d9d153982.html

No comma after Windows 11 PCs! The way it’s written you would include “and other devices” with Windows. But keep reading—the sentence has two lists! So the phones and Windows aren’t from Facebook, Amazon, and Google. An Oxford comma would have prevented that bump in meaning.

But wait—there’s more! Since Facebook, Amazon, and Google are a list within a list, that first list should have a semicolon instead of a comma. So here’s how the sentence should be:

The inevitable centerpieces of fall’s new-hardware season are new iPhones, Windows 11 PCs; and other devices from Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

Good punctuation reduces ambiguity.

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