Priceless Writing Tips4 Quick Steps to Proper Punctuation and Awesome Writing

Posted on November 28th, 2012

proper punctuationHi there, Writers Community!
Are you feeling good today?
We would like to start this post by saying Thank You for staying with us and being our reliable writers.
Thank You for delivering quality papers on time (and often long before the deadlines).
Thank You for putting your hearts and souls into those papers.
Thank You for understanding our high standards and complying with them.
Thank You for being as awesome as you are.

We are happy to have you in our team and we understand that what you are doing is tremendously difficult.
Making sure that the content, grammar and format are always perfect is hard like hell. However, hundreds of thoroughly researched, well-written and decently formatted pages successfully pass our verification procedure day by day. Bravo, Writers!
Yet, even if you are quite satisfied with your writing, sky is the limit, don’t you agree? Let’s not give occasional errors (or misprints) even a single chance to show up in your papers!
I guess most of you remember our tips on checking grammar. This time we’ll discuss 4 quick steps to proper punctuation.
 

Proper Punctuation: Who Cares?

Commas don’t always save lives, but sometimes they do:

  • Let’s eat grandma! – Oh, please, don’t!
  • Let’s eat, grandma! – Sure, sweetheart, I’ve baked some pies.

So, punctuation does matter. It is better to know the common rules.
Here is a punctuation quiz, which can help you detect your weak points, if any.
 

Proper Punctuation: Let Commas Know Their Places

As you can see from the quiz, the comma is probably the most disputable punctuation sign. Sometimes your decision to put it or not may depend on your attitude to what you write.
However, the following 4 quick steps cover the common rules, which are the guaranteed way to proper punctuation.
So, a comma is a must:

  • Before FANBOYS conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) if they join 2 independent clauses (clauses which have a subject and a verb)
    E.g. Comma rules are hard to learn, but a FANBOYS acronym can come in handy.
  • After dependent clauses at the beginning of a sentence. How do you know that a clause is dependent? The dependent clauses usually start with the words if, when, as, although, whenever, before, after, since, unless, until, whatever, while.
    E.g. Although it rains, we are going for a walk.
  • After introductory phrases, such as finally, unfortunately, luckily, of course, however, next etc.
    E.g. However, do not fall into the trap of internet frauds.
  • Non-essential interrupting words or phrases, which can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence.
    E.g. Do not fall, however, into the traps of internet frauds.

    • Do you want more examples and punctuation exercises? Here are 2 amazing videos:

    So, we hope this helps. A more detailed discussion of other tricky grammar questions is coming soon in our blog updates.
    Any suggestions as to the topics for the following posts? We highly appreciate your feedback, and the comments section below is all yours.

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