Question
Can I use a comma (,) before an ampersand (&)?
If no, then why not?
Example
The same products attracted all European countries to India: spices, silk, & cotton.
ampersandcommasoxford-commapunctuationserial-comma
Can I use a comma (,) before an ampersand (&)?
If no, then why not?
The same products attracted all European countries to India: spices, silk, & cotton.
Best Answer
By way of supplementing Mari-Lou A's answer, I note that Chicago Manual of Style is by no means alone in asserting that there should be no comma before an ampersand when one appears before the last item in a series. Here are the guidelines that various style manuals provide on this point.
From University of Chicago, Chicago Manual of Style, sixteenth edition (2010):
From Merriam-Webster, Webster's Standard American Style Manual (1985):
From U.S. Government Printing Office, A Manual of Style (1986):
The exception given in rule 15.29 involves index entries in which a surname appears as part of a company name that also includes an ampersand; USGPS declares that, in such cases, and the company name should be indexed alphabetically by the surname, in the following form:
Bu this exception doesn't involve a series, so it isn't relevant to the posted question.
The only formal style that directly contradicts the generally approved rule not to use a comma before & in a series is APA (American Psychological Association) style. According to Hodges' Harbrace Handbook, revised thirteenth edition (1998):
I should perhaps also note that many style guides oppose the use of ampersands except in proper names. For example, The Associated Press Stylebook (2007) includes this guideline:
So AP style would require the OP's example sentence to be rendered as follows:
Although the Oxford Guide to Style (2002) generally agrees with AP on this point, it adds an interesting exception:
The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2000), follows up on this point by more explicitly asserting the ampersand's ability to indicate a nested pairing:
This notion of using an ampersand to nest a compound entry within a longer series appears to be the central point of Ant_222's answer, as well. Still, Oxford's discussion of bagel types does not constitute not an endorsement of using an ampersand in place of and in a series such as "spices, silk, and cotton."