Video Transcripts:

APA Formatting & Style: Serial Comma

Last updated 5/6/2020

 

Visual: Screen opens to a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The title Walden University Writing Center and tagline “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears on the screen. The screen changes to show the series title “Formatting & Style” and the video title “Serial Commas.”

Audio: Guitar music

 

Visual: Slide changes to one with the following: Serial Commas

• She researched, read, and wrote her paper.
• I chose between a qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods design.
• The Writing Center offers short answers via e-mail, a live chat service, paper reviews by appointment, and webinars throughout the month.

Audio: You may already be familiar with this punctuation rule APA asks writers to use, what’s called a “serial comma,” or sometimes called the “Oxford comma.” The serial comma is where we add a comma before the conjunction in a list of three or more items. This means that before “and” or “or”, we add a comma.

This can best be illustrated through our examples: She researched, read, and wrote her paper. You can see that we have a comma after each item in the list, including before “and.”

In our second example, we do the same, with a comma after each item and before “and.” We do the same in our third example as well, even though this is a longer and more complex list.

Serial commas can take some practice to get used to adding, but our recommendation is to start practicing with serial commas in all of the writing that you do. You can use serial commas in the writing you do at work or emails you send, and the more you practice using it, the more it will become second nature.

 

Visual: The screen changes to an ending slide with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The email address writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu appears on the screen.