Outside Editor

@Steve L I always chuckle to myself when I visit XW Stats. It must be one of the most skewed data populations possible: the selection of people who sync to XW Stats vs all the solvers. I'm always waaaay slower than the average and don't know how other users can physically type so fast, never mind percolate their thoughts.

@Joe I know a professional editor who teaches writing at Oxford and prefers to use 'serial comma'; it's a helpful and neutral descriptor rather than implying it belongs to -- or has extra value because it's associated with -- a certain influential institution. There are some good reasons not to use it, especially in flowing prose where excessive comma use can create a jagged effect. But it certainly is useful to disambiguate lists that could be read ambiguously. In this case using it consistently can be preferable but not essential. The more you know about editing, he says, the less you cling to unnecessary rules.