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What is the rule on the use of commas in a series?

Is it medical, dental, and behavioural or medical, dental and behavioural?

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Jolie Courtney
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  • Correction: Is it "medical, dental, and behavioral" or "medical, dental and behavioral"? – Jolie Courtney Sep 26 '19 at 21:20
  • You can edit posts with the little 'edit' button below the body. – marcellothearcane Sep 26 '19 at 21:53
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    The comma between "dental" and "and" is called an Oxford comma or a serial comma. It is grammatically optional. Some style guides require it. Some style guides require omitting it. That means that you have to consult your style guide to know if you're supposed to use it or not. If you aren't following a style guide (like MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, Hart's Rules, etc.), then it's up to you. The only caveat is to be consistent, meaning don't sometimes use it and sometimes not use it. –  Sep 26 '19 at 21:54
  • Note that you also don't need to use commas at all. In some writing, they are dropped altogether: The reasons behind her actions were medical and dental and behavioural. However, simply keeping all of the conjunctions is much less common that worrying over using or omitting the serial comma. – Jason Bassford Sep 29 '19 at 23:03

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