I've heard that admitting the problem is a good first step.
So here goes.
My name is Kendall Gray, and I'm a serial killer.
Somewhere along the line, I killed the serial comma.
I became aware of the problem when
Judge Brister staged an intervention. He sent back comments on
a brief that we're writing, and one of his comments was:
Since when did you stop using the serial comma?
Oops. After the break, some blood, toil, tears, and sweat. And
grammar, style, and writing advice. And commas.
I make my amends for serial killing.
If you don't know what a serial comma is, then you might be
a serial killer too. Grammar Girl has a good explanation. A serial
comma is:
the comma that comes before the final conjunction in a list.
Here's a sentence that uses a serial comma: According to the
website Box Office Mojo, the top-grossing movies of all time in the
United States are currently Avatar, Titanic, and The Dark
Knight.
