The serial comma. Or, if you prefer, the Harvard comma.
Having just completed a very interesting editing project (thanks, Whit!), this pressing subject has been on my mind as of late.
For the uninitiated, the serial comma is the one most of us* were taught to use when we were in school. The one that comes just before the word "and" in a series. "The boy wanted a bat, a car, and a train for Christmas." Somewhere along the line, the powers that be (yeah, I'm lookin' at you Associated Press) decided that that particular comma was useless and banished it. Which is all good and well in a sentence as simple and straight-forward as the one above.
But what happens when you've got complex sentences - particularly those with sub-series within series? Things can get might tricky when you've got paragraph-long sentences full of various commas, semi-colons, clauses, and dangling whatnots. Plus, to my mind's ear (yeah, my mind has an ear - yours doesn't?), it just plain sounds wrong to leave it out. Your pausing anyway, why not have the comma. When it's missing, I find myself re-reading sentences to understand them correctly.
Can someone explain to me the reasoning behind doing away with the helpful, unobtrusive, and altogether lovely serial comma? 'Cause I just don't get it.
In other, related issues: Did you know that kids today are being taught to use ONE space between sentences, instead of two? Again: why?!! Stop taking away my comfy standard conventions!
*If you are too young to have been taught the serial comma, please be kind enough not to mention it.
