O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy

An obscure court case from the First District Court of Appeals that was decided on the intent of a law around the lack of a comma, making the law ambiguous.

This case is an example of why OAJ suggests using the Oxford Comma, also known as a serial comma. However, most publications in the United States follow Associated Press style and omit the serial comma. In all cases, punctuation for clarity, part of accessibility, is better than omitting punctuation.

For the case, see FindLaw Case Law resources.

Also see comma.

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offender

OAJ suggests following the style of the Prison Journalism Project when it comes to terms such as inmate, convict, and offender.

Per the PJP, those terms are defined this way:

• Offender — in general, a person who commits an illegal act.
• Inmate — a person confined to an institution such as a prison.
• Convict — a person found guilty of a criminal offense and serving a sentence of imprisonment.

However, when interviewing or discussing a person who is incarcerated or person who is in jail, it is important to remember that, despite the nature of the crimes with which people or convicted, as journalists we should remain neutral and thus use neutral language. The most neutral of language is a person’s name, which is their identity; it is also the most human.

Also see identity-first language and person-first language.

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oligarchy

A form of government or power that wrests with a small group of people, often with great wealth or familial ties.

This form of government is known for corruption and for working to enhance wealth among those in the oligarchy and their close ties, often to the detriment of certain groups, of the interests of the people in general, of infrastructure, and of the functions of government.

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onomatopoeia

A word that attempts to mimic the sound it describes. Examples include fizz, hiss, buzz, splash, and thud. As a literary device, not all onomatopoeia are actual words. Writers are known to create onomatopoeia to describe sounds. When doing so be careful to avoid simply creating an unreadable string of letters, especially consonants, to a screen reader.

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open captions

Captioning that follows that audio track of a video and delivers the dialogue and possibly the sound effects by text on the screen. It is part of the video tract and is always shown with the video. This may be used in formats that do not support closed captioning such as social media.

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over

As a preposition of special relationships, over indicates movement above or across time or place. It can also indicate position or transition.

Examples:

• I’ll work over the weekend to finish the project.
• We hope not to go over budget this year.
• The board has control over the bylaws of the organization.
• Boston has changed over the last few years.
• The bridge will span over the river.
• The new highway will cross over 7 states — nearly 17,000 miles.
• The cross country team ran over 500 km in preparation for this weekend’s meet.

Over is not to be confused with more than, an adverbial phrase.

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Oxford comma

OAJ suggests using the Oxford commas, also known as serial commas, for clarity. For rules, see comma.

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