The title of this section is a little deceptive. Except for quotation marks in the next section, I'm not going to get into the actual rules of punctuation and grammar. There are just too many to list here and there are plenty of quick resources on the internet you can turn to. These suggestions are to avoid easy mistakes.

1. Don't rely too heavily on spell checking programs.
   _____You probably have a spell check program included in your word processing software. (If not, you can find some freeware spell checking programs in the "writer's software" section.) It can be a great help, but remember the program is your friend, not your savior.
   _____Don't let the program auto correct; you should look carefully at each suggested correction the program makes and approve it yourself. If you don't, you can accidentally add more mistakes to your story. Let's look at an example:
   
   
   • Original Sentence: Wilma and Jessica had been together for trhee years.
     Spell Check Program: Recognizes "trhee" is wrong; suggests you use "tree" instead.
     Your Response: smile at the computer's suggestion but use "three" instead.
   
   
2. Watch paragraph length.
   _____Long paragraphs are hard on the eyes. A paragraph should not be an entire page or more. For a scholarly journal article or a medical paper, huge paragraphs may be fine--but not for a short story.
   _____If you have more than 10-12 sentences in a paragraph, it's in danger of being too long. Turn too long paragraphs into smaller ones. I'm not talking about deleting sentences, but altering it's presentation on the page.
   
   
3. Follow traditional punctuation/grammar rules, not "internet" rules.
   Traditional rules of punctuation are sometimes no where to be found in email and instant messages. If most of your written communication is done through the internet/web, it's easy for that style to creep into your other writing.
   • Don't use internet abbreviations.
     • Wrong: Mary pointed at John's shoes and LOL. "Why are you wearing your grandmother's sandals?"
     • Correct: Mary pointed at John's shoes and laughed. "Why are you wearing your grandmother's sandals?"
   • Don't use all caps to show that a person is yelling or shouting.
     • Wrong: The crowd yelled, "SURPRISE!"
     • Correct: The crowd yelled, "Surprise!"
   • Don't use two or three punctuation marks in a row.
     • Wrong: "Stop!!!!!!"
     • Correct: "Stop!"
     • Wrong: Jenny said, "What!?!?"
     • Correct: Astonished, Jenny couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What?"
     *Note -- In this example, the writer is trying to show that while Jenny is asking a question she is also loud/excited/etc. This should be shown in the story itself and not through a strange mixture of punctuation.