l   The serial comma is also known as the Oxford comma and the Harvard comma.

Serial comma又叫Oxford comma／Harvard comma。

l   例子：

在His friends are A, B, and C，「and C」前的「，」就是serial comma。

但His friends are A, B and C（C前沒有serial comma）也正確。

l   The serial comma separates the last item from the item next to last, in a list of more than two.

如果說的事物超過兩項，用serial comma將最後的一項和倒數第二項分隔。

l   The serial comma makes the phrasing parallel, and is routinely used in American English, but opinions vary on its usage.  

雖然「His friends are A, B and C.」和「His friends are A, B, and C.」均正確，但後者給人較大平衝感。Serial comma在美式英語較多使用，但對於是否應使用serial comma人言人殊。

l   In some cases （and in some cases only）, the serial comma can clear up ambiguities when one of the items in a list contains two elements（在一些（但並非全部）情況下，當列舉的各項之中其中有一項本身包含兩個元素，使用serial comma可以clear up ambiguities/avoid confusion（避免混淆））:

l   Examples:

l   （a） The investor asked for four separate reports on the performance of her investments in real estate, commodities, coins and stocks and bonds. （ambiguous） （含糊）（我們無法分清coins and stocks and bonds是一件事抑或兩件事，如果是兩件事，又分不清是coins + stocks and bonds還是coins and stocks + bonds。）

l   （b） The investor asked for four separate reports on the performance of her investments in real estate, commodities, coins, and stocks and bonds. （unambiguous） （清楚）

l   （c） The investor asked for four separate reports on the performance of her investments in real estate, commodities, coins and stocks, and bonds. （unambiguous） （清楚）

l   上文握要地談了serial comma的情況。如有興趣，可看Wikipedia 這條資料，內容精采詳明：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma。