Master these 7 grammar tips if you want to sound smarter

Master these 7 grammar tips if you want to sound smarterMaster these 7 grammar tips if you want to sound smarterAs the executive editor of Avenue Magazine, a luxury lifestyle publication based in New York City, I see the importance of proper grammar every day. But you dont have to work in publishing to realize the necessity of good writing. Misplaced commas, an incorrect spelling, or a missing hyphen can change the meaning of a sentence.Language rules exist for clarity. A classic example is the sentence Lets eat mom, which reads much differently from Lets eat, mom. In the first, the writer is having her mom for dinner. In the second, she is urging her mom to eat with her.Dont get caught up in an email chain of miscommunication. Read on for seven tips on how to improve your English expertise.Read frequentlyWriting well can become second nature to those who also read well. Pay attention to how authors structure their sentences and how they use commas and sentence length to adjust tone and cadence. Reading can help to increase vocabulary. If you dont know where to begin, ask colleagues for reading suggestions specific to your field, or browse best-selling book lists (heres a great list of business books).Ladders is now on SmartNewsDownload the SmartNews app and add the Ladders channel to read the latest career news and advice wherever you go.To write well, you must also understand the basics of the English language - how sentences are composed, the different parts of speech, subject/verb agreement, tense, and punctuation. Pick up a copy of Stephen Kings On Writing for a fresh take on writing rules.Memorize homophonesTheres no way around it - many rules in the English language require memorization. Among the most frequently committed grammatical errors are misused homophones, which are rogers that sound the same but have different meanings.Youre/your, there/their/theyre, its/its, and then/than are all commonly confused. An easy tool to help with contractions is t o remember that they are derived from two words. Youre is you are theyre is they are and its is it is. Then is used to indicate time, whereas than is used as a comparison.Learn first-person singular pronounsSentences often call for choosing the correct first-person singular pronoun - either I or me. Remember that I is a subject pronoun, whereas me is an object pronoun. A helpful way to determine word choice is to remove any other subjects.For example, consider the sentence My roommate and I/me went to the store. If you think about the sentence as I went to the store or Me went to the store, its more obvious that I is correct.I is the subject of the verb to be.Learn how to use commasAs a very broad rule of thumb, commas are used to indicate pauses in a sentence. They should not be used in place of a period. For example, We went to the baseball field, it was fun is incorrect.But We went to the baseball field, and it was fun is correct, as commas can be used to separate two independen t clauses when joined by coordinating conjunctions like and, or, or but. Commas are also used to separate three or more phrases in a series, after an introductory clause or phrase, and to set off nonessential clauses or phrases.Beware the dangling modifierA dangling modifier is a word or phrase that doesnt have a clear subject. After reviewing your notes, the conclusion remains elusive contains a dangling modifier. Who is reviewing the notes? The sentence should be rewritten to say, After reviewing your notes, I am unable to come to a conclusion.Stay activeAll sentences are identified as being either active or passive. In an active sentence, the subject performs the action. The girl ate the salad is an active sentence.In a passive sentence, the subject of the sentence is also the subject of the action. The salad was eaten by the girl is a passive sentence. Though both are grammatically correct, passive sentence structures often lead to more errors, including dangling modifiers, misp laced commas, and run-on sentences. Sticking to the active voice will help ensure clarity.Proofread, and read your piece out loudA common cause of poor writing is time, as writers often power through emails and memos, giving a document a cursory glance before sending it to colleagues or clients. Step away from your piece before you submit it, and give it a thorough proofread.Reading your writing in a new form - for example, on paper instead of on a screen in a different font or out loud - can be helpful in finding typos or grammatical errors.Speaking aloud will also help you to catch redundancies - phrases like 3 a.m. in the morning and $2 million dollars are redundant because a.m. indicates morning, and the word dollars is a repetition of the dollar sign.This article originally appeared on Business Insider.