A serial comma (or Oxford comma) is an optional comma used before the last item in a list. For example, “bread, butter, and tax evasion” uses a serial comma, whereas “bread, butter and tax evasion” does not.
Do you use it? Why or why not?
I always use it. I don’t perceive any less of a pause between the last two items in a list than between any others, so it feels natural to put a comma there as well. Tbh, I’m so used to it that I usually have to do a double-take when it’s not there (since it looks like a grammar error to me at first).
It makes more logical sense to use the serial comma in this example. Bread, butter, and tax evasion are three separate things. If you leave the comma off, it becomes “bread, butter and tax evasion” suggesting that the butter and tax evasion go together with each other. Give me some butter on my tax evasion, please.