It always irks me when some writers omit serial commas. You know, the comma that comes before "and" and "or" at the end of a list of three or more items. Without it, how can you write the following sentence in which each item contains an "and": "I like ham and mustard, peanut butter and jelly, and turkey and cheese sandwiches." The comma before the last item of the list makes things clearer in that and pretty much any other sentence.

Now Wikipedia has given me some backup as to why you should use serial commas. Here's who mandates usage of serial commas:

• United States Government Printing Office (used by government)
• Chicago Manual of Style (used by scholars)
• The Oxford Style Manual (used by scholars)
• The Council of Scientists Manual (used by scientists)
• American Medial Association Manual of Style (used by doctors)
• Strunk and White's Elements of Style (definitive reference used by many writers)

And here's who says not to use serial commas:

• The Times guidelines (used by Jayson Blair)
• AP Stylebook (used by the lowest common denominator media)
• The Economist guidelines (used by a weekly magazine that takes a month to read)

Who would you rather write like?

Posted by JoshC at December 14, 2007 4:21 PM

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