Serial comma
Encyclopedia
The serial comma is the comma
used immediately before a coordinating conjunction (usually and or or, and sometimes nor) preceding the final item in a list of three or more items. For example, a list of three countries can be punctuated as either "Portugal, Spain, and France" (with the serial comma) or as "Portugal, Spain and France" (without the serial comma).
Opinions vary among writers and editors on the usage or avoidance of the serial comma. In American English
, the serial comma is standard usage in non-journalistic writing that follows the Chicago Manual of Style
. Journalists, however, usually follow the AP Stylebook
, which advises against it. It is used less often in British English
, where it is standard usage to leave it out, with some notable exceptions such as Fowler's Modern English Usage. In many languages (e.g., French
, German
, Italian
, Polish
, Spanish
) the serial comma is not the norm and may even go against punctuation rules. It may be recommended in many cases, however, to avoid ambiguity or to aid prosody
.
Common arguments against consistent use of the serial comma:
Many sources are against both automatic use and automatic avoidance of the serial comma, making recommendations in a more nuanced way (see Usage and subsequent sections).
:
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 claims Ayn Rand
and God
are her parents. A comma before and removes the ambiguity:
An example collected by Hayden was found in a newspaper account of a documentary about Merle Haggard
:
which may be taken to mean that Kris Kristofferson
and Robert Duvall
were Haggard's ex-wives. A serial comma would preclude this reading:
Consider also:
Three foods are listed, but it is uncertain which are the second and third. Adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity. With a comma after eggs, the foods are:
With a comma after bacon:
Writers who normally avoid the serial comma often use one in these circumstances, though sometimes re-ordering the elements of such a list can help as well.
The serial comma after Ayn Rand creates ambiguity about the writer's mother because it uses punctuation identical to that used for an appositive phrase, leaving it unclear whether this is a list of three people (1, my mother; 2, Ayn Rand; and 3, God) or of only two people (1, my mother, who is Ayn Rand; and 2, God). Without a serial comma, the above dedication would read To my mother, Ayn Rand and God, a phrase ambiguous only if the reader is prepared to accept the unlikely interpretation my mother, who is both Ayn Rand and God.
This ambiguity does not exist under style recommendations that recommend that appositives be enclosed in parentheses, as in
Nor does the ambiguity arise when the phrase is written
once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov
documentary, noting that "highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela
, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo
collector". This would still be ambiguous if a serial comma were added, as Mandela could then be mistaken for a demigod, although he would be precluded from being a dildo collector.
Or consider
This is ambiguous because it is unclear whether "a maid" is an appositive describing Betty, or the second in a list of three people. On the other hand, removing the final comma:
leaves the possibility that Betty is both a maid and a cook (with "a maid and a cook" read as a unit, in apposition to Betty). So in this case neither the serial-comma style nor the no-serial-comma style resolves the ambiguity. A writer who intends a list of three distinct people (Betty, maid, cook) may create an ambiguous sentence, regardless of whether the serial comma is adopted. Furthermore, if the reader is unaware of which convention is being used, both versions are always ambiguous.
These forms (among others) would remove the ambiguity:
, Strunk and White's Elements of Style, most authorities on American English
and Canadian English
, and some authorities on British English
(for example, Oxford University Press
and Fowler's Modern English Usage
) recommend the use of the serial comma. Newspaper style guides (such as those published by The New York Times
, The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press
, The Times
newspaper in the United Kingdom, and the Canadian Press
) recommend against it, possibly for economy of space.
The differences of opinion on the use of the serial comma are well characterized by Lynne Truss
in her popularized style guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves
: "There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken."
In Australia
, Canada
, South Africa
and the United Kingdom
, the serial comma tends not to be used in non-academic publications unless its absence produces ambiguity. Many academic publishers (for example, Cambridge University Press
, for books published in the UK) also avoid it, though some academic publishing houses in these countries do use it. The Australian Government Publishing Service's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (6th edition, 2002) recommends against it, except "to ensure clarity" (p. 102).
The United States Government Printing Office
's Style Manual:
Wilson Follett's Modern American Usage: A Guide (Random House, 1981), pp. 397–401:
The Chicago Manual of Style
, 15th edition (University of Chicago Press, 2003), paragraph 6.19:
The Elements of Style
(Strunk and White, 4th edition 1999), Rule 2
The American Medical Association
Manual of Style, 9th edition (1998) Chapter 6.2.1:
The Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association
, 6th edition (2010) Chapter 4.03:
The Oxford Style Manual, 2002, Chapter 5, section 5.3 Comma:
The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (Council of Science Editors, 7th edition, 2006), Section 5.3.3.1
Garner's American Usage (Oxford, 2003)
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (Modern Language Association 2008). 3.4.2.b
Most college writing handbooks in the U.S. also advocate use of the serial comma.
style manual
The New York Times
stylebook
The Economist
style manual
The AP Stylebook
The Australian Government
Publishing Service's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers
The Guardian
Style Guide
University of Oxford Writing and Style Guide
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage
Comma (punctuation)
The comma is a punctuation mark. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical, or...
used immediately before a coordinating conjunction (usually and or or, and sometimes nor) preceding the final item in a list of three or more items. For example, a list of three countries can be punctuated as either "Portugal, Spain, and France" (with the serial comma) or as "Portugal, Spain and France" (without the serial comma).
Opinions vary among writers and editors on the usage or avoidance of the serial comma. In American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, the serial comma is standard usage in non-journalistic writing that follows the Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
. Journalists, however, usually follow the AP Stylebook
AP Stylebook
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is a style and usage guide used by newspapers and in the news industry in the United States...
, which advises against it. It is used less often in British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
, where it is standard usage to leave it out, with some notable exceptions such as Fowler's Modern English Usage. In many languages (e.g., French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) the serial comma is not the norm and may even go against punctuation rules. It may be recommended in many cases, however, to avoid ambiguity or to aid prosody
Prosody (linguistics)
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
.
Arguments for and against
Common arguments for consistent use of the serial comma:- Use of the comma is consistent with conventional practice.
- It better matches the spoken cadence of sentences.
- It can resolve ambiguitySyntactic ambiguitySyntactic ambiguity is a property of sentences which may be reasonably interpreted in more than one way, or reasonably interpreted to mean more than one thing...
(see examples below). - Its use is consistent with other means of separating items in a list (for example, when semicolons are used to separate items, a semicolon is consistently included before the last item, even when and or or is present).
Common arguments against consistent use of the serial comma:
- Use of the comma is inconsistent with conventional practice.
- The comma may introduce ambiguity (see examples below).
- It is redundant in a simple list, because the and or the or is often meant to serve (by itself) to mark the logical separation between the final two items, unless, of course, the final two items are not truly separate items but are two parts of a compound single item.
- Where space is at a premium, the comma adds unnecessary bulk to the text.
Many sources are against both automatic use and automatic avoidance of the serial comma, making recommendations in a more nuanced way (see Usage and subsequent sections).
Resolving ambiguity
The style that always uses the serial comma may be less likely to result in ambiguity. Consider the apocryphal book dedication quoted by Teresa Nielsen HaydenTeresa Nielsen Hayden
Teresa Nielsen Hayden is an American science fiction editor, fanzine writer, essayist, and teacher. She is a consulting editor for Tor Books. She has also worked for Federated Media Publishing, where in 2007 she revived the comment section for the blog Boing Boing...
:
- 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
Apposition
Apposition is a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to define or modify the other. When this device is used, the two elements are said to be in apposition...
to my parents, leading the reader to believe that the writer claims Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
and God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
are her parents. A comma before and removes the ambiguity:
- To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.
An example collected by Hayden was found in a newspaper account of a documentary about Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
:
- Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.
which may be taken to mean that Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
and Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
were Haggard's ex-wives. A serial comma would preclude this reading:
- Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson, and Robert Duvall.
Consider also:
- My usual breakfast is coffee, bacon and eggs and toast.
Three foods are listed, but it is uncertain which are the second and third. Adding a serial comma removes this ambiguity. With a comma after eggs, the foods are:
- Coffee
- Bacon and eggs
- Toast
With a comma after bacon:
- Coffee
- Bacon
- Eggs and toast
Writers who normally avoid the serial comma often use one in these circumstances, though sometimes re-ordering the elements of such a list can help as well.
Creating ambiguity
In some circumstances the serial-comma convention can introduce ambiguity. An example would be a dedication reading:- To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God
The serial comma after Ayn Rand creates ambiguity about the writer's mother because it uses punctuation identical to that used for an appositive phrase, leaving it unclear whether this is a list of three people (1, my mother; 2, Ayn Rand; and 3, God) or of only two people (1, my mother, who is Ayn Rand; and 2, God). Without a serial comma, the above dedication would read To my mother, Ayn Rand and God, a phrase ambiguous only if the reader is prepared to accept the unlikely interpretation my mother, who is both Ayn Rand and God.
This ambiguity does not exist under style recommendations that recommend that appositives be enclosed in parentheses, as in
- To my mother (Ayn Rand) and God
Nor does the ambiguity arise when the phrase is written
- To my mother Ayn Rand, and God
Unresolved ambiguity
The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
documentary, noting that "highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo
Dildo
A dildo is a sex toy, often explicitly phallic in appearance, intended for bodily penetration during masturbation or sex with partners.- Description and uses :...
collector". This would still be ambiguous if a serial comma were added, as Mandela could then be mistaken for a demigod, although he would be precluded from being a dildo collector.
Or consider
- They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and a cook.
This is ambiguous because it is unclear whether "a maid" is an appositive describing Betty, or the second in a list of three people. On the other hand, removing the final comma:
- They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a cook.
leaves the possibility that Betty is both a maid and a cook (with "a maid and a cook" read as a unit, in apposition to Betty). So in this case neither the serial-comma style nor the no-serial-comma style resolves the ambiguity. A writer who intends a list of three distinct people (Betty, maid, cook) may create an ambiguous sentence, regardless of whether the serial comma is adopted. Furthermore, if the reader is unaware of which convention is being used, both versions are always ambiguous.
These forms (among others) would remove the ambiguity:
- 1 person
- They went to Oregon with Betty, who was a maid and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with Betty, both a maid and a cook.
- 2 people
- They went to Oregon with Betty (a maid) and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with Betty—a maid—and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and with a cook.
- They went to Oregon with the maid Betty and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with a cook and Betty, a maid.
- 3 people
- They went to Oregon with Betty as well as a maid and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with Betty and a maid and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with Betty, one maid and a cook.
- They went to Oregon with a maid, a cook, and Betty.
In general
- The list x, y and z is unambiguous if y and z cannot be read as in apposition to x.
- Equally, x, y, and z is unambiguous if y cannot be read as in apposition to x.
- If neither y nor y[,] and z can be read as in apposition to x, then both forms of the list are unambiguous; but if y or y[,] and z can be read as in apposition to x, then both forms of the list are ambiguous.
- x and y and z is unambiguous.
Usage
The Chicago Manual of StyleThe Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
, Strunk and White's Elements of Style, most authorities on American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
and Canadian English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
, and some authorities on British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
(for example, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
and Fowler's Modern English Usage
Fowler's Modern English Usage
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage , by Henry Watson Fowler , is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing...
) recommend the use of the serial comma. Newspaper style guides (such as those published by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper in the United Kingdom, and the Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
) recommend against it, possibly for economy of space.
The differences of opinion on the use of the serial comma are well characterized by Lynne Truss
Lynne Truss
Lynne Truss is an English writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.-Early life:...
in her popularized style guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and...
: "There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken."
In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the serial comma tends not to be used in non-academic publications unless its absence produces ambiguity. Many academic publishers (for example, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, for books published in the UK) also avoid it, though some academic publishing houses in these countries do use it. The Australian Government Publishing Service's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (6th edition, 2002) recommends against it, except "to ensure clarity" (p. 102).
Style guides supporting mandatory use
The following style guides support mandatory use of the serial comma:The United States Government Printing Office
United States Government Printing Office
The United States Government Printing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. The office prints documents produced by and for the federal government, including the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Executive Office of the President, executive...
's Style Manual:
After each member within a series of three or more words, phrases, letters, or figures used with and, or, or nor.
-
- "red, white, and blue"
- "horses, mules, and cattle; but horses and mules and cattle"
- "by the bolt, by the yard, or in remnants"
- "a, b, and c"
- "neither snow, nor rain, nor heat"
- "2 days, 3 hours, and 4 minutes (series); but 70 years 11 months 6 days (age)"
-
Wilson Follett's Modern American Usage: A Guide (Random House, 1981), pp. 397–401:
What, then, are the arguments for omitting the last comma? Only one is cogent – the saving of space. In the narrow width of a newspaper column this saving counts for more than elsewhere, which is why the omission is so nearly universal in journalism. But here or anywhere one must question whether the advantage outweighs the confusion caused by the omission ...
The recommendation here is that [writers] use the comma between all members of a series, including the last two, on the common-sense ground that to do so will preclude ambiguities and annoyances at a negligible cost.
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
, 15th edition (University of Chicago Press, 2003), paragraph 6.19:
When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma ... should appear before the conjunction. Chicago strongly recommends this widely practiced usage....
-
- "She took a photograph of her parents, the president, and the vice president."
- "I want no ifs, ands, or buts."
- "The meal consisted of soup, salad, and macaroni and cheese."
-
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
(Strunk and White, 4th edition 1999), Rule 2
In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.
- For example, "red, white, and blue."
The American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
Manual of Style, 9th edition (1998) Chapter 6.2.1:
Use a comma before the conjunction that precedes the last term in a series.
-
- Outcomes result from a complex interaction of medical care and genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors.
- The physician, the nurse, and the family could not convince the patient to take his medication daily.
- While in the hospital, these patients required neuroleptics, maximal observation, and seclusion.
-
The Publication Manual
APA style
American Psychological Association Style is a set of rules that authors use when submitting papers for publications in APA journals. The APA states that they were developed to assist reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and to "move the idea...
of the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
, 6th edition (2010) Chapter 4.03:
Use a comma between elements (including before and and or) in a series of three or more items.
-
- the height, width, or depth
- in a study by Stacy, Newcomb, and Bentler
-
The Oxford Style Manual, 2002, Chapter 5, section 5.3 Comma:
For a century it has been part of OUP style to retain or impose this last serial (or series) comma consistently, [...] but it is commonly used by many other publishers both here and abroad, and forms a routine part of style in US and Canadian English. [...] Given that the final comma is sometimes necessary to prevent ambiguity, it is logical to impose it uniformly, so as to obviate the need to pause and gauge each enumeration on the likelihood of its being misunderstood – especially since that likelihood is often more obvious to the reader than the writer. (pp. 121–122)
The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (Council of Science Editors, 7th edition, 2006), Section 5.3.3.1
To separate the elements (words, phrases, clauses) of a simple series of more than 2 elements, including a comma before the closing “and” or “or” (the so-called serial comma). Routine use of the serial comma helps to prevent ambiguity.
Garner's American Usage (Oxford, 2003)
Whether to include the serial comma has sparked many arguments. But it's easily answered in favor of inclusion because omitting the final comma may cause ambiguities, whereas including it never will.
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (Modern Language Association 2008). 3.4.2.b
Use commas to separate words, phrases, and clauses in a series.
Most college writing handbooks in the U.S. also advocate use of the serial comma.
Style guides opposing mandatory use
The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
style manual
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
stylebook
The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
style manual
The AP Stylebook
AP Stylebook
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is a style and usage guide used by newspapers and in the news industry in the United States...
The Australian Government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
Publishing Service's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Style Guide
University of Oxford Writing and Style Guide
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters is a usage dictionary, giving an up-to-date account of the debatable issues of English usage and written style. It is based on extensive, up-to-date corpus data rather than on the author’s personal intuition or prejudice, and differentiates between...