orthography - Can the Oxford Comma be used with a list of adjectives of the same type?


I was wondering if a list of classifying adjectives of the same type could use the Oxford Comma.


For example: social, political, and economic problems is it a correct expression? I was checking a book and the expression they used is social, political and economic problems.


Another example: The tulips were yellow, orange and red. Can I use The tulips were yellow, orange, and red?


Does the Oxford Comma rule apply in those cases? Are they both valid?



Answer



Yeah, it's fine.



The Oxford Comma: Hart’s Rules
...
Examples of the serial comma are:



  • mad, bad, and dangerous to know



http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/06/oxford-comma/


There is some ambiguity in the case of your tulip example because it's not clear whether each tulip had three colours or whether you had a mixture of single-coloured tulips, but I'm guessing that's beside the point.


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