Joe Biden emailed a memo with the subject line “Reality check” to supporters last night. We’re afraid it needs a grammatical check.

“We’ve planned the biggest get out the vote operation in history, and we need to make sure that every voter has their voice heard,” Biden wrote.

This statement contains three errors.

First, Biden flips from “every voter,” which is singular, to a plural pronoun, “their.” If you’re making the case that every vote counts and trying to demonstrate an attentiveness (verging on worship) of every single voter, a singular pronoun would probably be your best bet.

Second, hyphens would make for an easier read. Hyphens are used to join related words. They can join a small group of words that together modifies one noun. Their presence quickly signals that this cluster of words is operating together, serving as one modifier. Biden should’ve written that Obama’s staff is planning “the biggest get-out-the-vote operation in history.” Notice that biggest is not linked by a hyphen because it stands as a separate modifier, describing the size of the operation, while get-out-the-vote describes the nature of the operation.

Make sure you never insert a hyphen directly before the noun. It’s used strictly to link words that function together as a modifier.

This is correct:

Obama’s 21-month campaign has been well funded.

This is incorrect:

Obama’s 21 month-campaign has been well funded.

Lastly, the comma in Biden’s statement is unnecessary. When the conjunction and joins two clauses that feature the same subject (in this case, we) and are closely related, no comma is needed.

If the subjects are different, or if the two clauses are unrelated, then a comma is needed.

But don’t worry, Joe the Senator: The president’s staff has no idea how to use commas either.