Remember this punctuation trick

The trend to using less and less punctuation doesn’t mean you don’t need any at all.

Clear writing still needs some commas, the occasional semicolon (;), perhaps a dash (–) every now and then, and of course full stops aka periods.

Commas can cause chaos.

People insert them where they don’t belong – like before a that, especially if you’re used to writing German.

Or they add a comma before some extra information and forget to add the second comma at the end of that extra information.

Sometimes, too many commas get strung together to create a clumsy sentence.

The trick is being consistent in your use of punctuation.

If you put a comma after an introductory phrase, then have one after all your introductory phrases.

If you use italics for a title, use them in all your titles.

If you go for double quote marks, don’t suddenly change to single quote marks.

Consistency aids clarity.

Clarity enables easy reading.

And a little punctuation goes a long way to making that happen.

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