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I have the following sentence:

I am a self-starter possessing excellent problem solving ability and outstanding coordination and communication skills.

Using the Oxford comma, what is the correct way to write it?

I am a self-starter possessing excellent problem solving ability, and outstanding coordination and communication skills.

I am a self-starter possessing excellent problem solving ability and outstanding coordination, and communication skills.

JSBձոգչ
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user576510
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    I'm voting to close because this is OP's sixth question, all of which seem to be concerned with nothing more than helping him write his job application, phrase by phrase. – FumbleFingers Mar 06 '12 at 22:58
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    @FumbleFingers: as long as each question is valid, I don't see a problem with all of them having the same ultimate purpose. – Marthaª Mar 06 '12 at 23:01
  • FumbleFingers thanks for your time. Please mention how it against site's policy. If it is against site policy it should be closed.

    I have put a question which I don't know about. I have mention an example where I am seeking guidance.

     – user576510 Mar 06 '12 at 23:02
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    @user576510: As I've said many times before, it's not really my concern whether your questions violate the exact wording of ELU's "site policy". Without wishing to be derogatory to you personally, I do not think the level of questions you ask are of interest to linguists, etymologists, and (serious) English language enthusiasts. If others agree, your questions will be closed. If not - well, I'm just one voice trying to push the site in a direction I would prefer. – FumbleFingers Mar 06 '12 at 23:07
  • ...also note that this specific question has been asked more than once before, and was in fact answered quite concisely very early in the life of the site – FumbleFingers Mar 06 '12 at 23:34
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    @FumbleFingers, those questions are all asking about the actual serial comma, i.e. involving an actual list rather than just a pair of items. As such, their answers don't really apply here. (I was trying to edit out the "oxford comma" mentions from the question, but I was afraid of changing the OP's intent too drastically.) – Marthaª Mar 06 '12 at 23:42
  • @Marthaª: Well, maybe it's just me, but I fail utterly to see the difference between this "non-Oxford comma" question, and OP's earlier one asking about "I am a software developer who has permanent residence, Bachelor degree and 4 years experience in .net for developing new software and doing enhancements in existing once." – FumbleFingers Mar 06 '12 at 23:58
  • @FumbleFingers, how you connect two different questions ? You are connecting an other questions's example with this question and concluding something wrong. – user576510 Mar 07 '12 at 00:04
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    @user576510: In this example your final "and" connects both "coordination" and "communication skills" to the preceding word "outstanding". In the earlier one, the final "and" connects "developing new software" and "doing enhancements in existing ones" to the preceding "4 years experience in .net". There is no difference. Also I notice you have ignored Peter Shor's well-meant advice, and not bothered to edit "once" to "ones" in that earlier question. There is more wrong with your English than ELU can be expected to help with. – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '12 at 00:15
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    @FumbleFingers: If he's really working on a résumé, as you infer, I have no problem with that - so long as he takes us all out to lunch after he lands a job ;^) – J.R. Mar 07 '12 at 02:53
  • @J.R.: He might be aiming for a position at one of those American colleges where academic potential is secondary to being able to help their team win in some sports league. In which case "outstanding" may only be intended to modify "coordination" (he's got good physical coordination on the football field). The "communication skills" may be just adequate for performing well on the pitch. I do despair of the fact that this all makes me seem even more grouchy than I am, though. – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '12 at 03:11

1 Answers1

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The serial comma only comes into play if you have an actual list, i.e. three or more items. You only have two:

excellent problem solving ability

and

outstanding coordination and communications skills

To see this, look at the nouns, not the phrases describing them: ability and skills are two things.

Within the phrase "outstanding coordination and communications skills", it is absolutely wrong to insert a comma before the "and". For the sentence as a whole, though, the issue isn't quite so clear-cut: it's not really a list, so adding a comma is unnecessary, but on the other hand, it can aid comprehension to group the adjectival phrases — basically, to make it clear that excellent problem solving goes with ability, while outstanding coordination and communications all go with skills.

Marthaª
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