The problem is compounded by the NY Times style guide (the Bible for journalists) which requires (yes, requires) the omission of the comma before the conjunction in a list. I often explain to my students that the rules for academic writing are sometimes different from (not than) the rules for journalism. Paul D. --- Odile Sullivan-Tarazi <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > The one I've always heard (and used) is -- > > To my parents, Ayn Rand and God > > which was, as the story goes, a dedication line in a ms. submitted > for publication. Needless to say, the editor added the serial comma. > > Though it inevitably provoked laughter, the line never seemed to > convince the hard-core opponents of the comma in that position. Nor > did my many examples illustrating the fact that (to my mind, at any > rate) the word "and" is not synonymous with ",and" -- if it were, the > two would be interchangeable. And adding a comma would never change > meaning. > > Even handbooks recommending suppression of the serial comma recognize > that there are instances when one must add it for readability or to > prevent misreading. Some are so stubborn on the matter, they don't > want to use it even then. Strange. > > > Odile > > > * And there's an instance of the comma as a stand-in for a missing > "that." I rather like it at times, though I was warned against just > such a use by one of my teachers. > > > > At 9:28 AM -0400 7/15/06, Christine Gray wrote: > >An example I use to show the necessity of the serial comma--of which I am a > >proponent--is the following: > > > >I respect my parents, Mother Teresa and Einstein. > > > >Without the serial comma, it seems that Mother Teresa and Einstein are my > >parents! > > > >Christine Gray > > > <snip> > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/