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The Oxford comma is the comma used before the final conjunction in a list of three or more items. When writing a list, of course, you'll include commas to separate items and show individuality.
The comma's use is consistent with the conventional practice of the region. [28] It can resolve ambiguity (see examples below). [29] [30] [31] Its use is consistent with other means of separating items in a list (for example, when semicolons are used to separate items, one is always included before the last item). [32]
The comma is used in many contexts and languages, mainly to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses, and items in lists mainly when there are three or more items listed. The word comma comes from the Greek κόμμα (kómma), which originally meant a cut-off piece, specifically in grammar, a short clause. [1] [2]
This list gives those most commonly encountered with Latin script. For a far more comprehensive list of symbols and signs, see List of Unicode characters . For other languages and symbol sets (especially in mathematics and science), see below .
The serial comma (for example the comma before and in "ham, chips, and eggs") is optional; be sensitive to possible ambiguity arising from thoughtless use or thoughtless avoidance, and be consistent within a given article. Avoid comma splices. Picture captions should not end in a full stop (a period) unless they are complete sentences.
They are not appropriate for large paragraphs. Simple bulleted lists are created by starting a line with * and adding the text of a list item, one item per * line. List items should be formatted consistently. Summary: Prefer sentence case. Prefer using full sentences, and avoid mixing sentences and fragments as items in the same list.
There are three types of lists: unordered lists, ordered lists, and description lists (a.k.a. definition lists or association lists).In the following sections, various list types are used for different examples, but other list types will generally give corresponding results.
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