ACT Comma Question [duplicate]
I came across this sentence on the ACT:
It was adopted by the Akkadians, Hittites, Persians, and others, and used for over 3,000 years.
I can see that the comma in "and others, and used" is helpful for a reader to parse the sentence, but I don't see that the comma is necessary or, frankly, even allowable. My understanding is that you should put a comma and conjunction in between two independent clauses, and you should not put a comma in between a subject and a verb, as in "I went to town, and saw the circus." Yet, that is precisely the sort of comma that I see in the sentence.
As far as I know, this is the way the comma should work:
- I lost at cards and regret it. (no comma)
- I lost at cards and checkers and regret it. (no comma)
- I lost at cards, checkers, and even our drinking game and regret it. (commas for the list)
The structure of the ACT sentence is similar to 3. What am I missing?
Solution 1:
Your intuition is correct and you are not missing anything. Sharp eye. A formation of the above sentence that uses commas correctly would look like this:
It was adopted by the Akkadians, Hittites, Persians, and others and used for over 3,000 years.
So let's review. Commas are required to separate list items with the terminal item comma (the Oxford comma) potentially optional depending on style guide prescriptions. However! The list doesn't end with the Persians. It ends with "others", and "others" should fall within the range of the list, at least in formal writing.
Next is the conjunction "and". A comma is required when a conjunction joins independent clauses. However! The phrase "used for over 3,000 years" is not a clause! Therefore a comma should not be used with the conjunction "and".