Many students have "discussed" with me the utility of being so picky on grammar when this is a history class and not an English class. Indeed, every semester at least one student points out how they made A's on English papers, but cannot make an A on a paper for me to save their lives. This is a valid concern. Allow me to address it.

Read the following sentence: "The koala eats, shoots and leaves." A simple sentence really, but it has an enormous grammatical error that completely changes the meaning of the sentence. Don't see it? Look again at the comma. By placing the comma behind "eats" the sentence reads as if the koala walked into a bank, ate a cookie, shot some people, and then went home.

Now, remove the comma so that the sentence reads this way: "The koala eats shoots and leaves." Once the comma is removed the meaning of the sentence is entirely different. The first version depicted the koala as not only hungry, but as a brutal killer. This second version shows the koala in his natural habitat, eating shoots and leaves; in other words, plants.

So, how you avoid these kind of silly errors?
1) Check the Writing Tips page. Many common errors are here.

2) Go the Writing Center. While the Writing Center may not catch everything and will not guarantee you an A, they will help you understand how things should be constructed, which will ultimately lead to better papers.

3) Read the paper out loud. If you read the paper out loud to yourself, pausing at commas, semi-colons and periods, many common mistakes will become readily apparent.