comma before "and"

[Unregistered]

when I am writing "fun, fellowship and challenges" should there be a comma after fellowship?

[whatever_love_means]

Some people don't write the comma there anymore; I've read somewhere that it's okay to do it as long as you remain consistent. I've also read that, to avoid confusion, it's best to always put in the comma. :) My teacher gave me this formula: Number of commas you should use = number of items in the series - 1 :)

[pedant]

Your style is yours - teachers shouldn't impose their own style on you.

It depends on the emphasis you want to give to three parts of the list, and whether each part is independent from each other.

eg1: This course offers fun, fellowship and challenges. (implies the challenges are associated with the fellowship, and fun is separate).

eg2: This course offers fun, fellowship, and challenges. (implies the challenges have equal status to the fun and the fellowship).

eg3: This course offers fun, fellowship, ....and challenges! (implies the challenges are something of a higher order than either fun or fellowship!).