is this proper grammer in a PS?

[Ari1584]

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i eliminated the commas before the word "and" when I would list things. I remember learning its okay to leave it in or take it out...

ex- "i scribed for the surgeon, read path reports and prepped rooms.

is that okay to leave that last comma out to save characters??

 

[AdemTD]

i eliminated the commas before the word "and" when I would list things. I remember learning its okay to leave it in or take it out...

ex- "i scribed for the surgeon, read path reports and prepped rooms.

is that okay to leave that last comma out to save characters??

Either is technically correct...I think.

 

[Bacchus]

Back when I was a youngster it was a, b, and c. But, now its hard for me to read anything and find that format. I usually see a, b and c.

 

[acridknight]

i eliminated the commas before the word "and" when I would list things. I remember learning its okay to leave it in or take it out...

ex- "i scribed for the surgeon, read path reports and prepped rooms.

is that okay to leave that last comma out to save characters??

Either is technically correct, though "a, b, and c" may be easier to read... it's more explicit and distinguishes between "a, b and c, and d" (the second item is a combination of two objects).

One major goal of your PS is to make it flow better and smoother... therefore, "a, b, and c" format is best IMHO.

 

[schizosquirrel]

Believe me, the adcoms have way too little time reading your essay to care about or even notice comma placement.

 

[dw2158]

"a, b and c, and d" (the second item is a combination of two objects)

what? 😕

 

[Mattabet]

The (a, b, and c) is technically more correct. Acrid is talking about a logical ambiguity that arises when you leave the second comma out (he's right about that). Without the second comma, it makes (a) seem like one unit and (b and c) the second unit. With two commas, you have three units (a) (b) and (c) which have equal weight.

However, the comma is left out often enough that it's accepted without. So no huge worries if that's how you want to do it.

The fact that 'grammer' is not a word is a much bigger problem 🙂

 

[NKat]

The New York Times no longer uses a comma before the "and".

 

[NickNaylor]

The correct construction is a comma after the second-to-last item (so "a, b, and c" is correct). I'm pretty sure this is the only correct format, but print resources usually omit the comma to save on printing costs since it doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence.

I would leave it in, but that's just me.

 

[vickpick]

comma before and is american, and no comma before and is british... I consider the British way more proper..

 

[vickpick]

The correct construction is a comma after the second-to-last item (so "a, b, and c" is correct). I'm pretty sure this is the only correct format, but print resources usually omit the comma to save on printing costs since it doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence.

I would leave it in, but that's just me.

a comma ain't gonna save them a lot of ink or space buddy....

 

[JJMrK]

it's more explicit and distinguishes between "a, b and c, and d" (the second item is a combination of two objects).

👍
Good point.

Either way though, OP. If you really need to save characters that bad I would go for it.

 

[NickNaylor]

a comma ain't gonna save them a lot of ink or space buddy....

One comma, no. But if this happens 100 or 200 times (probably more than that) in a magazine or newspaper, the savings might be noticeable. I'm not saying it's substantial savings, but when you can save $.0001/print on something that's printed many, many times, you'd probably go for it.