SMorg

This may seem a little nerdy, but I absolutely love the serial comma, and more so the fact that it is being endorsed by the NEA. I write with the serial comma all the time, and frankly have never thought it anything but normal.

The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always and or or; sometimes nor) that precedes the last item in a list of three or more items. The phrase “Portugal, Spain, and France”, for example, is written with the serial comma, while “Portugal, Spain and France”, identical in meaning, is written without it.[1][2][3]

There is no global consensus among writers or editors on the use of the serial comma.[4] Most authorities on American English recommend its use,[5] but it is not so frequently used in British English (see extended treatment below, including a survey of published recommendations in Usage and subsequent sections). In many languages (e.g. French,[6] Italian,[7] Polish,[8] Spanish[9]) the serial comma is not normally used, although it may be employed in cases where it aids clarity or the prosody to be used when reading.

Use of the serial comma can sometimes remove ambiguity. Consider the possibly apocryphal book dedication quoted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden^[15]:

To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

There is ambiguity about the writer’s parentage, because Ayn Rand and God can be read as in apposition to my parents, leading the reader to believe that the writer refers to Ayn Rand and God as his or her parents. A comma before and removes the ambiguity:

To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.

Consider also:

My favourite types of sandwiches are pastrami, ham, cream cheese and peanut butter and jelly.

According to the two most plausible interpretations of this sentence, four kinds of sandwich are listed. But it is uncertain which are the third and fourth kinds. Adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity. With a comma after peanut butter, the kinds of sandwich are these:

1. pastrami
2. ham
3. cream cheese and peanut butter
4. jelly

With a comma after cream cheese, the kinds of sandwich are these:

1. pastrami
2. ham
3. cream cheese
4. peanut butter and jelly

Some writers who normally avoid the serial comma may use one in these circumstances, though sometimes re-ordering the elements of such a list can help as well.