As a writer, editor, and publisher, I always use serial commas, and am very annoyed to note that many major writers, editors, and publishers do not. That is, they will write “writers, editors and publishers,” instead of the normal, natural, and proper style I have use three times already in this paragraph alone.
Why, you ask, is this important? Why is this in Great Debates? Because the use of the comma after the penultimate item in a list establishes the equivalence of all of the items in the list, and avoids suggesting an invalid connection between the penultimate and final items.
The best example of this problem I’ve come across was in a speech by an artist who had received a Grammy award. She was quoted in the press the next day as saying, “I’d like to thank my parents, God and Madonna.”
One presumes that the speaker did not intend to suggest this improbable ancestry, but observe what terrible things can occur simply for want of a humble comma.
And what is the putative advantage of eliminating the last comma? Saving space? Hah! No doubt there are acres of forest still standing because the New York Times eliminates thousands of commas from its pages each year. But at what cost? Clarity, comprensibility, and correctness!
So the debate here, obviously, is for you Dopers to present your best reasons for leaving out the essential last comma. Since I am possessed by something approaching religious fervor on this issue (perhaps the only area of my life which could be called religious), you are warned that it will be diffcult, nigh on impossible, to sway me from this view. But I am willing to consider the arguments against me.
Of course, right-thinking people who wish to agree with me are free to join in, too.
