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Clive  +  470247 Tue, 29 Jan 08 04:55 PM

Hi Anonymous,

Thank you for your comments. I envy your sense of certainty. Smile [:)]

Best wishes, Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,582
El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo
Anonymous, 1 yr 297 days ago

I recently saw this on another site, and it does seem that journalists started to remove that comma to save newspaper space although I had learned to separate each entity with a comma and that is what I do unless there is a relationship there between the final two items listed.

Another point from this other site was that when you have a legal document that states:  "I leave my estate to be divided amongst Joe, Mary, Alice and John", legally Joe would get 1/3, Mary would get 1/3, and Alice and John would split the final 1/3.  If it was written WITH a comma there (...Joe, Mary, Alice, and John), each person listed would receive 25%.

I suppose most of it matters if you are a journalist or an attorney!  LOL...  

Also, the computer listing someone mentions above would all be separated by commas for me unless there's a relationship (example:  Monitors and cables to the CPU, CPU and the electric power cable, mouse, and the screen-mounted microphone.

Anonymous, 1 yr 56 days ago
Yes, otherwise Customer Support and Quality would be one department!
Anonymous, 144 days ago
Yes it is, absolutely. That is one thing that I remember from school because in my mother language (German) this is different.
Anonymous, 122 days ago


'And' is a conjunction, if you are using a comma to seperate something why use 'and' and viceversa.

Grammar Geek  +  830232 Wed, 22 Jul 09 08:27 PM
Anonymous

 


'And' is a conjunction, if you are using a comma to seperate something why use 'and' and viceversa.

 

If you have two independent clauses (two complete sentences), you cannot join them simply with a comma. If you join them with "and" the prescriptivists insist you use a comma before the word and. Others say if the two independent clauses are short enough, you can omit the comma and just use "and." They work together - you cannot substitute one for the other.

 

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006
Veteran Member 19,652
Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!
Anonymous, 117 days ago

In your given example, 'comma' is not needed before 'and'. Thus the answer is-sales, customer support and quality.

However, in some cases 'comma' is used before 'and'.

Observe the following sentences-

1. She went to the market and bought some fruits.

2. She went to the market, bought some fruits, and went out on a picnic with her friends.

Well, my examples are not upto the mark.

But the main difference is that the two parts of the 1st sentence are related to each other- 'going to the market' and ' buying things'. But in the 2nd sentence 'and' joins two parts that are not related to each other, I mean one can't imagine 'shopping' and 'picnic' going together.

Well my explanation is not gr8, but hope to fade your problem out to some extent.

 

 

Anonymous, 80 days ago
It is correct either way, but a writer should always strive to be as clear as possible to his/her audience. I usually include it.


High School English teacher

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