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Common Punctuation Errors

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Spell check does not check for grammatical errors. Word processing software packages normally do grammar checks but they do not find everything.

The following are some of the more common grammatical errors made by writers:

• Commas are probably the most misused of the punctuation marks. It can be difficult to know exactly when to use a comma in a sentence. The comma indicates an interruption in thought or sentence structure. When using a conjunction, a comma is placed before the conjunction unless the clauses are short and closely related. For example, “I wanted to go shopping, but I did not have any money.” The comma was needed in that sentence. The comma is not needed in the sentence, “Sally cooked dinner and Tom cleaned up.” Commas are also used to separate items listed in a series. For example, “Megan bought a purse, necklace, and earrings at the store.”
• Apostrophes are used to show possession, form plurals, or mark the omissions in contractions. An apostrophe should be included in possessives such as “Tom’s coat” or “Susan Thomas’ cat went up the tree.” When the word ends in an “s,” only an apostrophe is added. An example of using an apostrophe to mark the omission in a contraction would be the word “won’t,” in the place of the words “will not.”
• The rule on punctuation and quotation marks is that the comma and period go inside of the quotation marks. Semi-colons and colons go outside of the quotation marks. The end punctuation of quoted material is dropped in favor of the writer’s own punctuation.
• Colons and semi-colons are often confused. Colons introduce a list and semicolons separate two sentences.

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