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Susan McHugh, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of English, was interviewed for a story on NECN that aired on March 17 about a recent controversial decision handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit—a decision that hinged on a single punctuation mark.

McHugh offered clarity on this decision involving a group of truck drivers from Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, Maine, who feel that they have been illegally denied overtime pay. Attorneys for the truck drivers argued that the lack of an Oxford comma (a usually optional comma that is used after the second-to-last item in a series) in Maine’s overtime exemption law indicated that the drivers were not exempt from overtime pay. The judge agreed and reversed a lower court’s decision.

McHugh stated that while the Oxford comma is “technically, linguistically… not required,” in this particular case it should have been used to clarify the intended meaning of the law. “I would note it as an area of ambiguity,” she said.

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