I’ve been posting a lot lately about blogs, blogging, and other life issues, so I wanted to get back to some writing tips. I’m still going through entries to Problogger’s Group Writing Contest and there are many entries that offer good information for writers in general.

One of these is English Punctuation: Commas, Semicolons, and Colons from Learningnerd. I found this article to be a great refresher as I’m currently teaching a developmental writing course to college students. My students have varying levels of competence in writing, but I’ve been very pleased with their progress so far. One of the difficulties that I’m having, though, is explaining some of the grammar rules.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling of just knowing a word, phrase, or sentence is incorrect. Something about it will just cry out to you that it’s wrong. The question is what’s wrong with it exactly and how do you explain that to someone else?

Since it’s been many years since I’ve had a real grammar lesson, it’s long past time for me to revisit the basics. Learningnerd’s post is a good start for this without having to resort to reading through a style manual. There are also many authoritative links included in the article for more information. Check it out for a good review of some of the basics of good writing.