From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The serial comma, also known as an Oxford comma or a Harvard comma, is a comma used before the word "and" in a list.
For example, the phrase "ham, chips, and eggs" is written with a serial comma, but "ham, chips and eggs" is not.
Nearly all modern authorities on English usage, especially for American English, recommend using the serial comma except in newspapers, where the serial comma is traditionally omitted for historical reasons (supposedly to save space).
The main justification cited for the serial comma is to reduce ambiguity. The standard example of how confusion can result from the absence of a serial comma is the book dedication (probably fictional): "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God". A comma before the "and" would rule out the unlikely possibility that the writer's parents are Ayn Rand and God.
(The alternate names for the serial comma come from Oxford University Press and Harvard University Press, who use it in their publications.)
