You can consult a good punctuation guide for your writing tasks, but it's still easy to get confused about certain things. Learning good punctuation skills can go a long way to making you a better and more persuasive writer. See if you make any of these common punctuation mistakes:

1. Incorrect Use of Quotation Marks

Many people use quotation marks when they mean to highlight something. This is not correct. Quotation marks are meant to indicate dialogue in fiction, as in, "Let's go to the movies," Joe said to Mary.

Another use of quotation marks is to indicate the title of a book or film. However, this is going out of style and is not necessary. You can use italics, as well as capitalizing the words, as in Star Wars, The Simpsons, or Romeo And Juliet.

Quotations are not meant to be used to stress or highlight something, as in "On Sale Today!" Use bold text, italics or larger print for this.

2. Extra Apostrophes

Apostrophes are used to indicate possession, as in John's house or Susan's car.

They also indicate contractions, as in "can't" for "cannot," or "they've" for "they have."

There is no need to use apostrophes to indicate plural, as in "Car's For Sale."

This is incorrect, though commonly done.

3. Run On Sentences

Commas, and the word "and" help to clarify sentences and break up long sentences. Long sentences can also be separated into two or more sentences.

Consider this:

"I woke up late this morning was late for the bus and got to work late and missed an important meeting."

Without commas, this sentence is awkward. It can be rewritten to read:

"I woke up late this morning, and was late for the bus. I got there late and missed an important meeting."

Remember to consult with a punctuation guide if you are unsure about something!

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Jane Sumerset is a professional proofreader working for many large companies in Britain. She's also a regular writer on topics like "how to write English easily" http://www.englishsoftware.org/articles.php on englishsoftware the renowned British English writing knowledge base.