Commas and Items in a Series

Use a comma to separate words and phrases in a series.  Present usage advocates the use of the comma before and connecting the last two words of a series; some writers, however, prefer to omit the comma before and.  This comma is called the “series comma” or the “Oxford comma.”  When etc. ends a series, it should be preceded and followed by a comma.  Use commas to separate pairs of words in a series.  Use a comma between adjectives preceding a noun when they are coordinate qualifying words.

Examples:

·         The vendor sells hot dogs, pretzels, hamburgers, and soft drinks.

·         For my birthday I got a sweater, a pair of gloves, a hat, and several other items.

·         Last week a sale of chairs, beds, desks, etc., was advertised in the newspaper.

·         Official and nonofficial, national and state agencies attended the convention in Boston.

·         The boss agreed on a form for a shortened, simplified uniform report.

EXERCISES

1.      It makes me wild  mad  crazy and frustrated when teachers give too many assignments about commas.

2.      Your brother dropped by with your suitcase blanket lamp books and box of junk.

3.      The corn beans squash tomatoes and various things I don’t recognize are coming up in the garden.

4.      If you’re going upstairs please carry this basket of clothes the pile of mail and whatever those things are over there in the corner.

5.      He collected stamps from Great Britain Ireland Spain France Italy Switzerland and Germany.

6.      We toured the quaint old mining town in Flagstaff, Arizona.

7.      For our picnic, I packed peanut butter and jelly ham and cheese and egg salad sandwiches.

8.      My mother washed by favorite brown flannel shirt.

9.      I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go to Florida California Texas or Mexico for spring break.

10.  My parent’s cousins neighbors Mr. Smith and Miss Larson came to my recital.