One of my students once told me that when she writes something she always puts a comma wherever she thinks someone should take a breath. She defended this by saying this is what they do in a musical ...

Liz in Newport Beach, Calif., posed a good question about commas. Consider the following two sentences. "Days are usually great, but, when they aren't great, they still pass in 24 hours." "Every word ...

I'm not a fan of excessive commas, but I find myself using them in a manner that seems somewhat excessive. But, I try to only use them where appropriate. For example ...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it seems, is a little obsessive about commas. According to press reports, he’s been sending out directives to staff that they should follow certain strict guidelines.

People who care about grammar love the serial comma, aka the Oxford or Harvard comma. They love it because they were instructed to use it in school, and they love it because it supposedly reduces ...

While we all slip up from time to time, there are some basic punctuation mistakes you should never make in formal writing. For example, don't confuse "it's" and "its," don't use an apostrophe to ...

In school, I was taught about conjunctions (e.g. or and and) and the role they play in sentence structure – they are linking words. They do what they say on the tin: con-(i.e. with) and -junction (i.e ...

Clarity is essential in life. A misinterpreted sentence, whether verbal or written, may have disastrous consequences. The importance of punctuation marks is clearly demonstrated in the difference ...

Correct grammar, punctuation, and “style” may seem old-fashioned these days, but their absence in any communication from a university or other reputable and highly visible entity is frowned on, even ...