THE way you put your sentences together - the words you use, their order, and how you spell and punctuate them - matters. This isn't just because certain rules shouldn't be broken; it's so that the message you intend to send your reader is the one that actually does get across.

But don't let grammar rules stifle your writing. More and more these days, it's acceptable to write the way we speak.

In this issue, we give you some background to punctuation and grammar, and look at a few common grammar mistakes that are easy to fix.

Tracey Hawthorne (Editor)