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I have been intensely studying that comma before the "and"
since about 1983. It has led me to a new paradigm for
punctuation which I will publish one of these days.
Don't bother with the usage guides on this one. Each merely
reflects the prejudices or "taste" of the writer. They seldom
if ever offer any rationale for their view.
The rule is that you can leave out the "and" and still make
your series accurate, but you can't leave out the comma.
The construction ____ and ____ is a coordination and
ultimately a MODIFICATION, a grammatical change.
The alternative or synonym is & -- the ampersand, which
sometimes replaces ",and"; in fact, you should see this
as a unit (, and) not as separate items. They work together,
not alone.
History also may be on the side of the comma. I believe it was
some 19th C. journalist who made the first pronouncement that
the comma was unnecessary in the series. Journalists are
prone to do things like that. They still do. They arbitrarily
make up punct. rules. For example, our local rag has somewhere
along the line decided to omit the first some around an
embedded subordinate clause! Rule? They have none, just some
crazy editor's prejudice. These fads travel around in the
world of journalism.
The bottom line is accuracy. If you omit the comma, you have
inherent ambiguity in the last two units in the series. If you
put the comma in, you will never have any ambiguity.
Some wags say you should leave out the comma -- unless it could
cause confusion. Then you have two rules instead of one. Also,
ambiguity is created by people who don't know as much as the
reader does and can't see it coming. Thus, they don't know they
are causing confusion. Useless rule.
If you want to be on the side of the angels and always be
clear and unambiguous, put that good old comma in.
I don't put much stock in them as isolated arbiters of the
truth, but almost without exception now college handbooks of
English recommend the comma. Check it out.
Awake, alert, and unambiguous, AKRA.
Albert E. Krahn E-Mail AKRA -at- MUSIC -dot- LIB -dot- MATC -dot- EDU
Division of Lib. Arts and Sciences Fax 414/297-7990
Milwaukee Area Technical College Ph (H) 414/476-4025
Milwaukee, WI 53233-1443 Ph (W) 414/297-6519
