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blatherskiteSince this has come up a few times in reviewing edits by colleagues and in other places, I thought it might be worth a clarification about the meaning and use of the serial comma... and the cautionary tale about making assumptions about style guides.
The idea of the serial comma is to clarify that the last two items of a list (a series) are not being treated as a parenthetical statement joined by "and". Adding the comma avoids any risk of misinterpretation. The famous example offered to illustrate this point is "I dedicate this book to my parents, Ayn Rand and God", which can be improved by adding a serial comma after "Rand". However, this is a poor example, since it's unlikely that any reader would misinterpret the statement as the author's claim of having both a divine parent (God) and a diabolical parent (Rand). This leads to the philosophy that the comma should be eliminated to simplify the punctuation if the risk of misinterpretation is low.
First and foremost, please note that deleting the serial comma is emphatically not "British" or "UK" style, though it is often used by UK authors. The other name for the serial comma? The Oxford comma. You can't get more British than that unless, perhaps, you called it the Cambridge comma. In fact, the Oxford University style guide requires the serial comma last time I looked (many years ago, so treat this as informed extrapolation of the present situation rather than having checked this 5 minutes ago).
Second, please note that "US style" does not universally use the serial comma, though it's more common in US style guides. Why is this? My experience is that there is no such thing as UK or US style, other than for spelling; even then, you may find differences among dictionaries for some words that have been Americanized or Britishized differently by different dictionary editorial committees. The important point? There are a great many style guides in both countries, and they differ about as often as they agree.
As a footnote, even if British style does not require the serial comma, neither does it forbid the serial comma. Thus, the comma can be retained wherever you feel that it adds clarity. The main virtue of using the serial comma from an editorial perspective? It's never wrong, and it's far easier to learn to just use the damned thing everywhere than it is to have to decide in each case whether it's necessary. Save your brain for more important work.
End of rant. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
The idea of the serial comma is to clarify that the last two items of a list (a series) are not being treated as a parenthetical statement joined by "and". Adding the comma avoids any risk of misinterpretation. The famous example offered to illustrate this point is "I dedicate this book to my parents, Ayn Rand and God", which can be improved by adding a serial comma after "Rand". However, this is a poor example, since it's unlikely that any reader would misinterpret the statement as the author's claim of having both a divine parent (God) and a diabolical parent (Rand). This leads to the philosophy that the comma should be eliminated to simplify the punctuation if the risk of misinterpretation is low.
First and foremost, please note that deleting the serial comma is emphatically not "British" or "UK" style, though it is often used by UK authors. The other name for the serial comma? The Oxford comma. You can't get more British than that unless, perhaps, you called it the Cambridge comma. In fact, the Oxford University style guide requires the serial comma last time I looked (many years ago, so treat this as informed extrapolation of the present situation rather than having checked this 5 minutes ago).
Second, please note that "US style" does not universally use the serial comma, though it's more common in US style guides. Why is this? My experience is that there is no such thing as UK or US style, other than for spelling; even then, you may find differences among dictionaries for some words that have been Americanized or Britishized differently by different dictionary editorial committees. The important point? There are a great many style guides in both countries, and they differ about as often as they agree.
As a footnote, even if British style does not require the serial comma, neither does it forbid the serial comma. Thus, the comma can be retained wherever you feel that it adds clarity. The main virtue of using the serial comma from an editorial perspective? It's never wrong, and it's far easier to learn to just use the damned thing everywhere than it is to have to decide in each case whether it's necessary. Save your brain for more important work.
End of rant. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.