Grammar Lesson, Part II
OK, for our next lesson I'm tackling one of the more controversial grammatical devices: the serial comma.
The serial comma is the last comma in a series: red, white, and blue. Some would write that phrase "red, white and blue," with no comma.
They'd be wrong.
With any list of three or more, use a comma before the fibal conjunction.
Where did not using the final comma come from? When you look into it---as I have---you find it comes from newspaper style guides. Places like the AP, Reuters, where every single letter or mark means ink and space, and both are in short supply. So they eliminate the comma, saving both.
Some people call it the Oxford Comma, although why I don't know, because the Oxford Style Guide uses the final comma.
So, enjoy.
