Posted by David Brooks on December 19, 2003 at 18:48:35 from 208.210.80.40 user DavidBrooks.
In Reply to: Re: Oxford Comma posted by Robert Dilley on December 19, 2003 at 05:05:30:
> In a listing, US practice would be to write "A, B, C, and D"
This is, indeed, the usual style in the US, but for some reason the Associated Press has never followed it. The AP Style Book says the comma should be omitted before the conjunction in a series unless needed for clarity - such as when, to quote the book, "an integral element of the series requies a comma, e.g. 'I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast,' " or when the list involves "a complex series of phrases."