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Subject:Re: Items in a Series and Comma Use From:Barry Campbell <barry -dot- campbell -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Kirk Turner <royj -at- alltel -dot- net> Date:Fri, 27 Jan 2006 21:02:22 -0500
Kirk,
Much ink (and perhaps even blood) has been spilled over the issue of
the serial comma.
Wikipedia has a surprisingly good, thorough article on the topic:
The Chicago Manual of Style and the US Government Printing Office
support the mandatory user of the serial comma; many journalistic
style guides, including AP, would support its use only when necessary
to remove ambiguity.
Pick the style guide you'd like to follow, or roll your own. Just be
consistent. And don't worry about falling out of fashion; writers
will still be fighting about this a hundred years from now. :-)
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