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Ask Ms. Grammar

Meet Lesia Winiarskyj, aka Ms. Grammar. Before joining JobTarget's Career Resources Team, Lesia spent 17 years as an editor, hiring manager, and publications director. She has earned numerous awards for educational and editorial excellence from the Parents' Choice Foundation, APEX, EdPress, Instructor magazine, and others. She has many pet peeves.

Dear Ms. Grammar,

Please settle a debate. My colleague says you need the final comma before "and" in a series; I disagree. We both swear we're right.

—Erin

Dear Erin,

Technically, you are both right. There's no hard-and-fast rule about the serial comma; it's mostly a matter of style or personal preference.

So, what do I prefer? I like the final comma.

The Associated Press (AP) style, which is primarily used by newspapers, does not place a comma between the last two items in a series: apples, oranges and pears. The issue here—and the reason I agree with your colleague—is that the final comma can sometimes prevent confusion. Take this example:

I went to dinner with my husband, an accountant and a volunteer firefighter.

Unless I know you, I can't be sure whether you went to dinner with three people (your husband, an accountant, and a volunteer firefighter) or whether your hubby crunches numbers by day and drives a pumper truck by night. Get it? My advice is to insert the last comma in a series (apples, oranges, and pears) and be consistent about it.

Ms. Grammar