Using a comma before "and"? Princeton SAT vs. ACT

LoveTheBard
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 22:08:11 +0000

Both are grammatically correct.

The Oxford comma (aka the serial comma) sometimes helps to clarify between items in a list and descriptive adjectives. There are tons of examples online, but this is a classic:

Who’s coming to the party? I invited the male strippers, Nixon, and Stalin.

vs.

Who’s coming to the party? I invited the male strippers, Nixon and Stalin.

In the first example, Nixon and Stalin – along with some male strippers – have been invited to the party; in the second example, Nixon and Stalin ARE the male strippers that were invited to the party.

Without naming any names, I especially liked a new Oxford comma meme I saw that visually shows the difference between

“…a president, a racist, and a misogynist.”

vs.

“…a president, a racist and a misogynist.”

I’ll let y’all guess the context.