On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Geoff Wing wrote:

: : "a, b, c, and d", not "a, b, c and d".
:
: I don't know how to put this politely, but is this just a wank or what?
: I've been using English v7.2 for decades.  Why did we need this upgrade
: to Englysh v8.0?

The serial comma construct (with the comma after every entry in the list,
including just before "and"), is the recommended usage in academia for a
century or more.

From Strunk's time-tested "Elements of Style", 1st ed.[!], 1918:

http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html#2

Other examples of academic and technical writing style guides:

http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm#1
http://www.princeton.edu/~lmcantor/webpagexix.htm#1
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/writing-style.html

Periodicals and some schoolteachers may omit or even recommend against using
the serial comma.  However, in technical writing, serial commas are
typically expected.

**

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