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At 07:27 AM 1/27/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>When listing items in a sentence, the rule is to separate the items
with
>commas. What is the rule on putting a comma before the conjunction
>separating the last item in the list? For example, the following
>sentence:
>He asked her to go to the store, buy her groceries, and cook her
dinner.
It's a question of style. Chicago and the GPO say to use the comma
before
the conjunction; Associated Press and the NY Times say (usually) no (but
admit that sometimes it is needed to avoid ambiguity).
So pick a style and be consistent. I always include it if I am setting
the
style.
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