Serial commas made headlines a few weeks ago when a court decided that the absence of a serial comma made a law ambiguous. In this space last week, I begged to differ. But I didn’t have enough space ...

I have finally realized that people’s beliefs about serial commas are as fierce as people’s thoughts on anchovies and reality shows. You either love them or hate them. No amount of arguing will ...

People who care about grammar love the serial comma, aka the Oxford or Harvard comma. They love it because they were instructed to use it in school, and they love it because it supposedly reduces ...

DEAR RICHARD: The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the comma used before the conjunction in a list of three or more items. For example: “I like to eat apples, bananas, and oranges.” I ...

“It was a typical Friday night at Costco in Corona. Customers, including an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, 32-year-old Kenneth French and his parents, waited in line for food samples.” How many ...

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter. You know it, and you love it or hate it—it’s the last comma in a simple series, the one before “and ...

"It was a typical Friday night at Costco in Corona. Customers, including an off-duty Los Angeles police officer, 32-year-old Kenneth French and his parents, waited in line for food samples." How many ...

I have spent my career navigating between literature and journalism, trying to learn from both worlds. From my training and experience as an English professor, I carried into the newsroom the power of ...

It was nice to see my friends Nick and Dave in my inbox recently. I thought their questions were worth sharing. Q When listing things, do you put a comma between the second to last item and the “and”?