From the course: Business Writing Principles

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Addressing common punctuation errors

Addressing common punctuation errors

From the course: Business Writing Principles

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Addressing common punctuation errors

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- [Instructor] When we speak, we have tone and facial expressions. When we write, we have words on the page and the punctuation marks. The exclamation point is used, of course, to indicate a surprise element and the question mark means a question's being asked. Those are easy. But what about the pesky comma? The comma is the most used and the most abused punctuation mark. I'm convinced that sometimes the only reason a comma is inserted is that it looked like a good place, or I breathe, or I haven't used one for a while. However, that comma can completely change the meaning of your message. Look at this sentence. Does it need a comma? The red team, predicted the blue team, will win the tournament. Your correct answer should have been it depends. You can't know until you know the writer's intent. The sentence without the commas predicts the blue team will win. Let's add commas. The red team, comma, predicted…

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