Adding Serial Commas in a Sentence

One of the most common issues faced by Emily when editing involves the insertion of the serial comma in an in-line list of items, before the final conjunction between list items. Emily's office enforces the use of the serial comma for clarity and to avoid such potentially awkward phrasings as, "I dedicate this book to my parents, Mother Teresa and Jesus." However, many writers do not like to use this comma, so Emily spends a good amount of time editing it into almost every paragraph of text she comes across. Emily notes that it would make her life easier if she had a macro that would search from the insertion point to the end of the current sentence and insert a comma before the next occurrence of the common conjunctions "and" and "or", but only if there is no comma already there.

What Emily is referring to is variously know as a "serial comma" or an "Oxford comma." Its use has been debated for decades by grammarians. (I don't want to get into a debate about it here, but will say that the use of an Oxford comma can improve clarity when it comes to inline lists, as Emily notes.)

Emily is looking for a rather simple solution to the problem, one that will search for the common conjunctions and insert a comma, as necessary. The best way to handle this situation is with a macro, as she notes. Here is one that will perform the task:

Sub SerialComma()
    Dim MySelection As Selection

    Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdSentence, Extend:=wdExtend
    Set MySelection = Selection
    Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
    Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
    With Selection.Find
        .Text = "([!,.?;:]) and "
        .Replacement.Text = "\1, and "
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Format = False
        .MatchCase = False
        .MatchWildcards = True
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    MySelection.Select
    With Selection.Find
        .Text = "([!,.?;:]) or "
        .Replacement.Text = "\1, or "
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    MySelection.Select
    Selection.Collapse
End Sub

The macro first selects everything from the current insertion point to the end of the current sentence. Then, using a wild card search, it searches for an occurrence of the word "and" that doesn't follow a punctuation mark. If it finds it, it replaces the occurrence with a comma and the word "and". It will then do a similar search-and-replace operation for the word "or".

This macro can, of course, be assigned to a shortcut key or the Quick Access Toolbar to make adding this type of comma a snap.

I recognize that this macro may not work for all grammatical permutations. (English is rather "squishy" that way.) It may be better to simply let Word check your document for you and flag anything that it questions when it comes to the presence of the Oxford comma (or lack thereof). You can make this change in this manner if you are using Word 2007, Word 2010, or Word 2013:

1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or Word 2013 click the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
2. Click the Proofing option at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box.

3. Click the Settings button. Word displays the Grammar Settings dialog box. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Grammar Settings dialog box.

4. Make sure the "Comma Required before Last List Item" option is set to Always.
5. Click on OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.
6. Click on OK to close the Word Options dialog box.

If you are using Word 2016 or a later version, use the following steps instead:

1. Display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.
2. Click the Proofing option at the left side of the dialog box. (See Figure 3.)



Figure 3. The Proofing options of the Word Options dialog box

3. Click the Settings button. Word displays the Grammar Settings dialog box.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the dialog box to display the Punctuation Conventions option. Make sure the Oxford Comma is selected. (See Figure 4.)



Figure 4. The Oxford Comma Selected in Grammar Settings dialog box

5. Click on OK to close the Grammar Settings dialog box.
6. Click on OK to close the Word Options dialog box.

The setting won't insert the last comma for you, but it will catch those instances where the comma is not present.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9295) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Adding Serial Commas in a Sentence.