Lia ordered three smoothies: strawberry, peach and mango and pineapple. Here’s an example where omitting the serial comma results in ambiguity: Proponents of the serial comma, like the MLA, would decry the inconsistency of the use-it-when-you-need-it approach and advocate using the serial comma in all series of three or more items or phrases. Fair-weather comma users: publications that do not require the serial comma may use it only when misreading results. Who would object to unambiguous prose? you might ask. With the exception of newspapers, most publications use the serial comma, because it helps writers avoid ambiguity. This comma precedes the final item in a list or series, before the word and or or. Perhaps no mark of punctuation ruffles feathers more than the serial comma (also called series comma, Oxford comma, and Harvard comma).
