Thanks to everyone. I'll have to look at the Math manual.
I do, however, want to add one thing:
On 4/19/2010 4:09 PM, Uwe Stöhr wrote:
(By the way in English there is no comma before the "and" if the part
after the "and" is the last enumeration in a sentence; like in
"A, B, C and D are letters.")
The following comes from the /Chicago Manual of Style/, 15th ed.,
section 6.18:
When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma
-- known as the serial or series comma or the Oxford comma -- should
appear before the conjunction. Chicago strongly recommends this
widely practiced usage, blessed by Fowler and other authorities (see
bibliog. 1.2), since it prevents ambiguity.
Here's an example of what the CMS is talking about:
"The meal consisted of soup, salad, and macaroni and cheese."
Thanks to the commas we know there are three courses, the last being
"macaroni and cheese," rather than four, including "macaroni" as the
third and "cheese" as the fourth.
Thanks again!
Marsh Feldman
