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From Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Chapter 2, Lesson 2:

In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last

Thus write,

  • red, white, and blue
  • honest, energetic, but headstrong
  • He opened the letter, read it and made a note of its contents.

My question is: Why isn't there a comma after read it in the third example?

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Saad Rehman Shah
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    Duplicate (vote to close) - http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/412/ – Adam Mosheh May 16 '12 at 15:53
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    Ask yourself what a comma would add. – Barrie England May 16 '12 at 15:53
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    I don't think this is a duplicate at all. I think the question is, "given that the style guide itself dictates there should be a serial comma, why does the third example not include the serial comma?" – D. Patrick May 16 '12 at 16:01
  • I would vote to close as dupe of dupe of dupe. –  May 16 '12 at 16:01
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    If the title is changed to "Strunk and White Recommend Serial Comma but the Example Excludes It" or something, could you leave the question open? Consider the next person who uses an incorrect copy and has the same question. It'd be valuable to to find this question on stack exchange. – D. Patrick May 16 '12 at 16:07
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    We all know the best place for Strunk and White anyway. – Barrie England May 16 '12 at 16:16
  • @Barrie, you are right, I know. –  May 16 '12 at 16:22
  • @BarrieEngland What's the best place for Strunk and White? I am a noob here, so don't know... – Saad Rehman Shah May 16 '12 at 20:12
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    @Caffeine: I'm not sure I can give a polite answer to that. Perhaps you should read this: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497. – Barrie England May 16 '12 at 20:23
  • @BarrieEngland Oh! I just... It's just that whenever I asked questions, people answered me while referring to it. So I thought it was in fact, a standard! Why don't you give me a substitute? I understand I could offend people by asking for a handbook for something that is learnt over decades, but you must realize I am not a writer by profession, but care to be correct :) – Saad Rehman Shah May 16 '12 at 20:46
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    @Caffeine: Strunk and White is a popular style guide good for beginning writers. But it is well known by language enthusiasts to be very inconsistent (e.g. condemning the passive while using it quite a bit) and promulgating questionable rules (e.g. Ending a sentence with a preposition). It is a great book for beginning writers but those with lots of experience might have negative things to say about it. – Mitch May 16 '12 at 22:47
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    @Mitch So just what are you supposed to end a sentence with? – tchrist May 16 '12 at 23:22
  • @BarrieEngland The answer to your question regarding what a serial comma would add is trivial: consistency. – tchrist May 16 '12 at 23:24
  • All of which raises the question of why the New York Times omits that comma before "and." Are they trying to save ink? – Morris B. Holbrook Nov 12 '16 at 17:29

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I believe there is a comma after "read it" in the third example in Strunk and White's Elements of Style. I'm looking for a version of the book that does not include the serial comma in that example but haven't found one.

Revision: I found one. It was a PDF copy of an older edition so I couldn't see the publication date. It appears that there was a typo in some versions where the serial comma was left out. Later prints include the serial comma per the style guide's recommendation.

Sorry, another revision. I forgot to give a link to a current copy: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3697/the-elements-of-style

D. Patrick
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  • http://www.cs.vu.nl/~jms/doc/elos.pdf – Saad Rehman Shah May 16 '12 at 16:01
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    It's my bad if I have a version that's misprinted. I was just following this book because it's more beautifully typeset than the other version available. – Saad Rehman Shah May 16 '12 at 16:01
  • Can you refer me to a correct version of it? That I can follow too? A pdf. – Saad Rehman Shah May 16 '12 at 16:03
  • Yeah. I just edited my answer to include a more recent copy. It's available as epub or pdf and you can get it on your kindle if you have one. Also, it's free. – D. Patrick May 16 '12 at 16:04
  • +1 Please include file type and file size B with the hyperlink.Thanks so much. – Kris May 16 '12 at 17:41
  • I just noticed, the version you've pointed me to, and the version I already had are both 1918. So I guess it's not the Print Version issue per se. – Saad Rehman Shah May 16 '12 at 20:11
  • Books generally include the original publication date, but they'll make updates and revisions between prints. It was a 1918 book, but they print them as need arises. These days, tracking of versions and revisions is handled a little better than they used to be. – D. Patrick May 17 '12 at 13:01