Misplaced Punctuation

Sometimes punctuation is misplaced or left out altogether, as in the following sentences:

"The nostalgic impact of the Dewey Hotel, the Tom Mix Museum and Prairie Song Village has served as a drawing card for history buffs and tourists to wander and browse the many antique shops and delightful specialty stores."

Now, are the Tom Mix Museum and Prairie Song Village connected? It's difficult to know since there isn't a comma after the word Museum, and that confuses the reader. If those places aren't connected, let the reader know by putting a comma in the proper place:

The nostalgic impact of the Dewey H0tel, the Tom Mix Museum, and Prairie Song Village has served as a drawing card for history buffs and tourists to wander and browse the many antique shops and delightful specialty stores.

Commas do not go between two independent clauses:

"Just prior to World War I, Joe Bartles went to Washington, D. C., to offer land north of Dewey for an airplane factory and flying school, the offer was accepted."

There is more than one way to correct that problem. You could turn the sentence into two separate sentences by adding a period, or you could replace the comma with a semi-colon, or the word and and a comma. Or you could use a dash, which would add some drama, but that is unnecessary given the context of the information.

Just prior to World War I, Joe Bartles went to Washington, D.C., to offer land north of Dewey for an airplane factory and flying school. The offer was accepted.

Just prior to World War I, Joe Bartles went to Washington, D.C., to offer land north of Dewey for an airplane factory and flying school; the offer was accepted.

Just prior to World War I, Joe Bartles went to Washington, D.C., to offer land north of Dewey for an airplane factory and flying school, and the offer was accepted.