Grammar and punctuation reference
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Explanations, examples, and exercises for grammar and punctuation, for example, effective writing, who / whom, punctuation rules, and capitalization
Comma, semicolon, colon, parenthesis, dash, quotation marks, and italics use
Explanations of common grammar mistakes and examples of incorrect and correct sentences, for example, run-on sentences / comma splices, sentence fragments, subject / verb agreement, and tricky plurals
Specific grammar difficulties
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How to establish if the verb agrees with the intended number of the subject
Faulty parallelism with series, correlative expressions, and comparisons
A clear explanation of the four types of sentence clauses: independent (main), dependent (subordinate), relative (adjective), and noun clauses
Examples with charts showing when to use who, whom, whose, that, which, where, when, why, or no relative pronoun
Specific punctuation difficulties
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Explains the three uses of the apostrophe with examples
Rules for commas and when the rules can be broken
When to use a comma and when to use a semicolon in sentences with independent clauses
Charts with rules for and examples of sentences with semicolons
Rules about when to use a hyphen to join words
When to use the en dash and the em dash and whether to use spaces around them
Common spelling and word choice mistakes
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The 100 most commonly misspelled words
A long list of commonly misused words and confused word pairs, organized alphabetically
Common errors, such as words with similar spellings that are often confused and words that are often misused or misspelled
Clichés
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Annoying business clichés and possible replacements
At the end of the day and 99 other clichés
How to stand out from the crowd by not using clichés such as stand out from the crowd