Essay Punctuation Mistakes in College Papers

It is not a secret that essay punctuation has an important meaning for successful paper writing. One of the mistakes most commonly made in terms of punctuation by students are the ones that refer to the usage of comma, apostrophe, and hyphen among others.

1. Remember that when there is a contraction, an apostrophe should be used. Also, try to pay close attention to essay punctuation when you place it in a word. However, in general, the contractions are not often used in formal writing style. Let’s check some examples in order to understand the rules better:

WRONG

Lets go out and have some fun.
She could’nt tie her shoe.

RIGHT

Let’s go out and have some fun.
She couldn’t tie her shoe.

1. An apostrophe should be used in essay writing to formulate the nouns’ possessive case and know its position for singular and plural nouns (before -s) (after -s). Check for some examples in the Internet.
2. In a compound sentence, conjunctions, and commas can be used to join clauses. You have to take up a role of essay punctuation checker.
3. Comma is generally used when there is a need to separate information that is attached in the beginning or in the end of a sentence. Here is a good example.

WRONG

A few years ago we were travelling in Europe.

RIGHT

A few years ago, we were travelling in Europe.
The trip took place a few years ago.

1. When in one sentence, you are enumerating a few items or actions, the commas between them are necessary. Vocabulary, grammar, style, and originality of ideas are the most important components of any paper.
2. Remember to use a comma to separate the epithets used before a noun they describe. For example: It was a difficult, time-consuming task.
3. Non-defining relative clauses, appositions, and parenthetic words should be singled out.

His mother, Laura Ashley, was a designer of home furniture.
A second year student, who knows almost nothing about the routine university life, can face various kinds of problems.

1. The phrase that introduces the quoted phrase is set off by commas: As one famous poet said, “A person who is tired of Paris must be tired of life.”
2. In American English, commas also have a role of setting off numbers in groups of a few digits, words for the week days, months, and years.

The total turnover of a company is $6,000,000.
The essay is due Tuesday, December, 8th, 2014.

1. Hyphens usage with numbers and compound adjectives (e.g. twenty-one) and prefixes, such as ex-, self-, great- (e.g. ex-president).

Do not forget about essay editing and your papers will get only good grades.