In today’s society we are fortunate to have a wide variety of technology that can assist us with ensuring our grammar and punctuation is accurate. Unfortunately, technology can only take us so far and grammar and spell-checkers on computers are by no means fool-proof and well-developed proof-reading skills are still essential to ensure glaring grammatical errors are corrected.
Sound knowledge of the rules of punctuation and grammar will not only improve your marks at university, but, used skilfully, can make your arguments more persuasive and engaging. In addition to this, almost all employers, and certainly those recruiting for 'graduate level jobs', view effective written communication as a highly desirable skill.
Our resources below will give you an overview of the correct use of common punctuation marks in academic writing and also a number of grammatical pitfalls to avoid.