Question: I'm at a loss as to how I should title this. I have this sentence:

> 
> We have the option to provide notifications via 
>  telephone, and, possibly, email.
> 
> 
> 

I am trying to express several things:

1. We have an option to provide notifications
2. We can provide
those notifications via telephone
3. I think we can provide email
notifications (Further research is required, but I believe the
audience already has that context. The addition of "possibly" is
primarily meant to emphasize the lack of a guarantee).

Would I be better off with this:

> 
> We have the option to provide notifications via telephone, and possibly, email.
> 
> 
> 

or this:

> 
> We have the option to provide notifications via telephone and, possibly email.
> 
> 
>

Answer: 
Firstly, a rant. I deplore and detest the word *notifications*. It should have no plural. It is designed to be an uncountable noun and, therefore, not capable of pluralisation. It derives from the verb *notify* so it focuses on the act or fact of giving or receiving notice. 

Facebook and the rest make me foam at the mouth with the revolting 'You have received new notifications'. No, my darling, stupid Facebook, you are referring to *actual notices* so just call them *notices*. You are not trying to say anything about the act or fact of giving notices, you are communicating something about actual notices - new notices are awaiting attention.

You will find other examples where the long word (often ending *-ation*) is used when the shorter word is better. An example that springs to mind is *motivations* - no such word in my book. Motivation is the general idea of having motives, so it already carries a plural sense; if you want to talk about certain movites, then just say *motive* or *motives*. This practice is the result of people mistakenly believing that longer words make them seem better educated.

Turning to the matter in hand, I suggest a simpler start with 'We are able to provide notification by telephone and, possibly, e-mail.' 

*Notification* strikes me as right here but *notice* (again as an uncountable noun), or *notices* might work well depending on context. 

If you want to surround *possibly* by commas, there is no need for a comma before *and*. The commas act as weak brackets. Take *possibly* away and there would be no comma before *and*, so why insert one just because you add *possibly*?
As others have noted, the three commas in

> 
> We have the option to provide notifications via telephone, and, possibly, email
> 
> 
> 

are unnecessary; or the comma before *and* could be retained ("...via telephone, and possibly email"); or the aforementioned "weak interruption" might be set off by commas ("...via telephone and, possibly, email"); or it might be set off by parentheses ("...via telephone and (possibly) email"). The last of these forms perhaps is most likely to convey the idea that email might or might not be available for notifications. That idea is slightly obscured by appearance of both *option* and *possibly* in the sentence. Consider a rewording like

> 
> We can provide notifications via telephone and (if circumstances permit) email.
> 
> 
> 

Saying "we can provide..." instead of "we will provide..." implies that notifications are optional, and it probably is not necessary to explicitly say they are optional. If for some reason you are required to be explicit, start the sentence off with "If you so choose" or "If you like" or "At your option":

> 
> If you like, we will provide notifications via telephone or (circumstances permitting) email.
> 
> 
>