The following may be of interest to some list members - it's a recent Language Log post by Pullum, "Would a linguist always grade your writing A+". The title's a bit unfortunate, since P. really only discusses mechanics, and thus might give the impression that that's the only thing a linguist would evaluate in an essay, but I'd chalk that down simply to a desire for a catchy title. The first three items discussed, by the way, are punctuation issues. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3084 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/