Punctuation
Punctuation is the root of all evil, or so some would have us believe. It is probably the one topic that people wish they'd paid more attention to at school. The truth is that punctuation is as hard as you want to make it. To help you stay on the right side of the pedants, and more importantly potential clients, I've picked out a couple of my top punctuation tips.
Commas
Usually used too often or not enough, remember that the comma is primarily a clarifier and a list separator.
The longer the sentence, the more likely you are to need commas to separate each section. So, write shorter sentences.
If you can take a comma out of your sentence and keep the meaning, leave it out.
Apostrophes
The apostrophe replaces missing letters: don't (do not), it's (it is), you're (you are)
With an "s", the apostrophe is used when something belongs to someone or something: Anthony's website, the writer's career, the dog's testicles.
The apostrophe is not used for:
- plurals. Always cars, CDs, apostrophes etc;
- something belonging to you (yours), her (hers), us (ours), them (theirs) and especially it (its)!
Sign up to the occasional Write the Talk newsletter for more free tips and details of my forthcoming punctuation and grammar e-book (try and contain your excitement). It's a downloadable reference guide that will help give you the confidence to let your writing out of the shadows.
