Why is there a comma in “On, Wisconsin” as a song title but not in On Wisconsin the magazine title? Jessica A. ’04

You’ve got a discerning eye, if you notice the missing bit of punctuation in the magazine’s title. The sheet music for “On, Wisconsin,” the UW’s school song (and Wisconsin’s state song) does indeed include a comma — what grammarians call “the comma of direct address.” The words “on, Wisconsin” in the title are spoken directly to Wisconsin, urging it onward. Legend has it, this phrase originates in the Civil War, when, during the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Union officer Arthur MacArthur Jr. ordered his Wisconsin regiment forward. But it’s unclear whether, when writing the lyrics for “On, Wisconsin,” Carl Beck ever said to William Purdy, “Hey, let’s make an obscure reference to something that happened 40 years ago!” The magazine title On Wisconsin is a play on words: though it uses the same two words as the song title, it uses them not as direct address but as a prepositional phrase, meaning “on the topic of Wisconsin.” If you put a comma there, it would be what grammarians call “an error.”