Can’t figure out why commas belong in certain places in sentences but not others? You’re not alone. In English, we use commas in many different ways, so their presence in (or absence from) a sentence may seem arbitrary. However, commas
Writing Tip: “As well as” doesn’t mean the same thing as “and”
When you’re writing a sentence that already contains the word “and,” it can be tempting to use “as well as” instead of another “and.” You probably learned at some point in school or at work that you should avoid using
Punctuation tip: Not all questions end with a question mark
Not every sentence that sounds like a question ends with a question mark. Sentences that do end with question marks are called direct questions — they are sentences that we could ask someone. For example, “Lisa, where are the cookies?”
When to leave periods out: Part 1
For those of us who write in English on a regular basis, using periods is usually a pretty standard affair. We know that, in general, we need to place a period at the end of a sentence. In some cases,
Writing concisely tip #6: Combine sentences
Sometimes our writing is wordy because we use more sentences than we need to express our thoughts clearly. Because each sentence needs to contain certain types of words (e.g., nouns, verbs, and prepositions) to be grammatical, breaking up related ideas