There is no better system than the one that works for you! And that is true for everyone.

Here is an interesting approach to use punctuation while talking.

A classical Victor Borge interpretation.

well thanks for pointing out to me another area to improve upon. I’ll dive into english punctuation soon.

And don’t hesitate to give me further hints of improvement capabilities :)

I should have known! I teach English academic writing in Germany and decided against recommending your post especially because the commas were in German places and not English ones! However, if this is your second language, it’s very good indeed. Keep up the good work.

Caroline

thank you for your constructive feedback. This is definitely an area of improvement for me. I do automated and manual spell checking and grammar checking. Since english is only my secondary language somehow the ingrained rules of german punctuation, which are different than english punctuation rules, sometimes slip in. I’ll have a lookout for that in the future.

I really like criticism that is detailed and helpful – since it is always helpful for increasing our understanding in a specific area.

I’d like to take the middle ground here. The content is useful and interesting – so much so that I would have liked to recommend it to my academic writing students. Then I noticed the commas, which often occur in your text, Patrick, when none is needed (around defining relative clauses, for example). You yourself advise a spelling and grammar check; it would be good to check punctuation, too.

Anica, it’s not fair to say something is bad in some way without specifying exactly what is wrong and why it disturbs you.

Regards, C.

And of course it is also a good idea sometimes to reread your article one or more days later. Especially if you consider it an important article which you might add some pieces to, after a good nights sleep and some more input from your subconscious.