15 Punctuation Errors to Watch For

By far the most misunderstood punctuation mark is the simple comma.

Commas should be used to:

1. splice together independent or main clauses in a sentence
2. set off words or phrases within a sentence
3. set off nonessential elements of a sentence

Commas should not be used to:

4. separate the subject and predicate of a sentence, especially in the presence of restrictive elements
5. separate compound elements of a sentence when they are not independent clauses
6. follow conjunctions such as and, but, although, and such as (note proper comma use here!)

That's 6 of the 15 most common punctuation errors right there.

To illustrate the importance of proper comma use, consider the following sentence:
Let's eat grandma!

With the strategic (and proper) placement of just one comma, the sentence changes from a raging zombie-fest to a simple invitation:
Let's eat, grandma!

Here are some more punctuation errors to avoid:

7. improper colon use between verbs and their complements or between prepositions and their objects.
8. improper apostrophe use in possessives, especially those referring to time.
9. use of an apostrophe at all - EVER - in a plural. Never do this, it makes you look singularly uneducated.
10. improper semicolon use between independent and subordinate clauses.
11. using a colon instead of a semi-colon or vice-versa.
12. improper use of single quotation marks.
13. use of commas and periods outside closing quotation marks.
14. using a hyphen instead of a dash.
15. using an exclamation point in an academic paper that is not part of a direct quote.

If you can teach yourself how to avoid these errors, you'll likely never make an obvious punctuation error again.