Tip #1: Keep the grammar handbook handy.
Even if (you think) you already know the grammar rules, this can be a must. In fact, you'll probably want a few—different rules vary with sources, most noticeably the serial comma and the spacing around an em-dash.
(Don't sweat it if you're thinking "Huh?"—you're in the majority even among people who can apply grammar well. Being able to work with something and knowing the specific terms for it are two separate things.)
To demonstrate what I'm referring to about the differing rules, the following example sentence is correct by United States standards in both ways I've written it below.
- Gothic, symphonic, and Christian rock—these are my favorite genres of music.
- Gothic, symphonic and Christian rock — these are my favorite genres of music.
The first one is correct according to The Chicago Manual of Style, and the second one is preferred by the AP Stylebook. The company where I work prefers a hybrid. As you can see, I prefer the serial comma, that comma before the and in the list of three or more items, and the lack of spaces around the em dash, that long dash.
That's why the handbook should always be kept on hand—the grammar handbook preferred by whoever you're writing for. That way, you can double-check the rules for that person or those people. Journalism-type situations tend to prefer the AP Stylebook, with print ones preferring The Chicago Manual of Style, and schools often prefer yet another source leaning one way or the other.
And then there's the factor that, if you write enough, you're probably going to end up with one of those wacky sentence situations where you just can't figure out how it should be punctuated. (The rules for those tend to vary widely, too, and are largely a matter of personal taste.)
If you don't like keeping handbooks on hand or dislike how quickly they can become outdated, the sites for many grammar handbooks offer special Internet versions of their handbooks at reasonable prices for year-long subscriptions.
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