I’d bet if you weren’t familiar with the Keys and you read the first sentence of that paragraph on a Key Largo business site, you’d think Key Largo was home to BOTH the world’s largest artificial reef AND the 510 foot USS Spiegel Grove – which would make you wonder what the “world’s largest artificial reef” actually is. And that’s all because of misleading commas the writer probably would have noticed if he or she had read that sentence out loud. Chances are they would have stumbled over it and edited it to something like… “Key Largo is home to the world’s largest artificial reef (the 510-foot Spiegel Grove), the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park…” etc. Reading your writing out loud (or at least loudly in your mind) is the ONLY way to make it sound as stumble-free and easy as one side of a friendly conversation!
