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Items to be worn at school: kind of White 'V' neck shirt with white flaps with house stripes, white socks, white hair band and white shoes, House colour scarf.

I feel like the and should come between last two phrases as I have seen this standard at most of the phrases. Is the above construction correct and what is the logic behind not putting the and at between the last two?

On the side, I also noticed a capital 'H'. Might it signify something?

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  • There is no parenthesis here. The commas all separate list items.
    – James K
    Commented Aug 21, 2016 at 10:14
  • The capital "H" signifies that "House" represents the living accommodation where the girls are in a boarding school. "House stripes" should also have a capital "H", and the second sentence should read "House coloured scarf", though "House scarf" would also be appropriate, just as "House tie" would be appropriate for boys.
    – Peter
    Commented Aug 21, 2016 at 18:35

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Consider bulleted lists:

  • There are a series of items
  • A new line for each item
  • There is a bullet or other symbol
  • No "and" before the final item

What you have is a compressed bulleted list. To save space the writer has joined the items of the bulleted list into a single line. The effect isn't beautiful English, but it is functional. You are correct that a normal list in a paragraph has the last item joined with "and".

The capital "H" is a fault, as is the "W" of "White". It is quite common in a bulleted list to begin each item with a capital, even when the item isn't a full sentence. The writer has not changed the case to lowercase when writing the list in a paragraph. This should not be considered to be "good writing" or used as a model for your own texts.

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  • I have seen sentences like- Keep us pure and kind and true. They could also be written as pure, kind and true?
    – Heater
    Commented Aug 21, 2016 at 10:16
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    -1 A "normal" list does not require a comma: We saw all three colors: red, white, blue.
    – Alan Carmack
    Commented Aug 21, 2016 at 15:15
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    A list does require something to separate the elements. In speech this is a intonation group, in writing it is usually a comma. It is normal (but not required) to join the last item of a list with "and". Thus "red, white and blue" is correct as is "red, white, blue". But "red white blue" is mispunctuated; the comma is required.
    – James K
    Commented Aug 21, 2016 at 15:31

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