The Oxford Comma, a.k.a. the Serial Comma

Reposted from forum "sticky."
Modern standards favor the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma is that last comma before the "and" in the end of a series of things.

For example - the Oxford comma appears in these sentences:
We serve coffee, tea, and lemonade.
I can make scarves in blue and yellow, green and white, red and black, violet, and gold.

In the first sentence, while the comma is preferred, foregoing the use of this comma will probably not cause ambiguity (that is, I know of no culture that serves coffee, or tea&lemonade--though you can see where I'm going with this). However, in the second sentence, the subtraction of the final comma would cause confusion:
I can make scarves in blue and yellow, green and white, red and black, violet and gold. The reader may mistake the colors "violet and gold" to be a color combination like those mentioned formerly.

However, an Oxford comma can also cause ambiguity when used incorrectly. It is important to remember to group items that should be grouped together (as in the scarves example above) and to separate those which need separated, up until the very end of the series.

This is probably my favorite explanation of the Oxford comma:

Although either style may cause ambiguity (in "We considered Miss Roberts for the roles of Marjorie, David's mother, and Louise", are there two roles or three?), the style that omits the comma is more likely to do so: "Tom, Peter, and I went swimming." (Without the comma, one might think that the sentence was addressed to Tom.) "I ordered sandwiches today. I ordered turkey, salami, peanut butter and jelly, and roast beef." Without that last comma, one would have a MIGHTY weird sandwich! -- Gabe Wiener. James Pierce reports that an author whose custom it was to omit the comma dedicated a novel: "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God."

(From http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxabandc.html)

However, you can find an equally amusing explanation of the Oxford comma here:
http://www.siue.edu/IS/WRITING/NewsletterC/Issue%208/page3.html

So please use the Oxford comma where appropriate and make sure your commas don't give, er, unnecessary pause.

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