It is necessary to pay close attention to essay punctuation marks while writing any type of paper. However, students often forget about this important issue. Typical mistakes are connected with the use of a hyphen, apostrophe, and comma.

Down below, we have highlighted the most common cases of grammatical errors in essay writing that are made by learners:

  1. An apostrophe is used in the contractions of the verbs. However, it is should be admitted that contracted forms of verbs are not used in academic writing.

Lets go to the beach because it is so hot.

They were not able to carry out that project.

The above-mentioned sentences show the wrong use of the apostrophe.

Now pay attention to the following phrases:

Let’s go to the beach because it is so hot.

They weren’t able to carry out that project.

In the examples above, the discussed essay punctuation item is properly used.

The apostrophe is also used to form a possessive case of nouns. It is placed before –s when the noun is in singular, and after –s when it is in plural.

  1. Commas and conjunctions are used to connect the clauses of compound sentences.

            This book is very expensive, but it is really useful.

A comma is also used to separate some words placed in the beginning or end of the sentence. In this case, their position is usually uncommon from the point of view of syntax.

Here we can order a pizza. – This sentence is grammatically incorrect.

Here, we can order a pizza. A pizza can be ordered here. – Any of these sentences is correct.

We offer you to follow the next essay punctuation checker directions to avoid mistakes.

  1. A comma is placed between listed items, especially if there are a few of them:

Sugar, bananas, and chocolate are the main ingredients of the cake.

  1. This essay punctuation mark separates epithets when they go before a noun: It was a warm, sunny day.
  2. Commas are used to separate non-defining clauses and appositions: My car, which I bought last month, is so cool.
  3. We use commas when citing quotations: As a well-known poet said, “He who loves not this country can love nothing.”
  4. Commas are also placed in numbers, days of the week, months, and dates: Company’s expenditures amounted to $ 7,000,000. He is born on 12th May, 2005.
  5. Hyphens are used with compound adjectives and numerals (thirty-two, well-written) and such prefixes as self-, ex-, great- (self-employed, great-grandfather).

If you follow these essay editing tips, you will always write error-free papers!