My 11th secret is to base writing off of facts. In a professional writing situation, like a paper for school, emotions and opinions can cloud our judgement. I know I have struggled with this my entire writing career. While editing a paper for my Communication Theory class last fall, I received a very unfavorable grade because my thoughts were not based on facts. I noticed how often my emotions oozed onto the pages. The assignment was supposed to be a research based project. I infused my emotions and opinions into the paper without having the scientific evidence and facts needed to provide credibility.

Mistake # 9: Misusing Commas.

I noticed three errors involving the misuse of commas this week. One was in an email between my focus group partner and I with the leader of the focus group. Here is the part of the email where I found the error: "My project partner, Steve Bench had reached out to Bonnie in SPARC and she forwarded him on to Aimee." There should be a comma after Bench. My name is a nonrestrictive clause in this sentence. 

For the second error, I also noticed too many commas in a sentence from an invitation to the WSU Salutes event next week. Here is the excerpt: "The event is part of WSU’s Homecoming Week, and is held to honor alumni who have lived distinguished lives, made a difference in the community, or have otherwise contributed to the success and reputation of WSU." The first part of the sentence should be its own sentence. The author created a comma splice. 

http://www.alumni.weber.edu/s/953/alumni/index.aspx?sid=953&gid=1001&pgid=509

For the third error I noticed this sentence in sports article from Deseret News: "A dual-threat quarterback, Hoge can extend plays with his legs." This sentence should be re-written as: Hoge is a dual-threat quarterback because he can extend plays with his legs.
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865688855/If-Beau-Hoge-starts-what-does-he-bring-to-the-BYU-offense-and-is-he-ready-for-the-big-stage.html

I know I misuse the comma frequently. During my reading this week, I was able to notice when the comma was misused. I know I have a long way to go to improve my writing but I have notice improvement.