Got stumped.. Need assistance with a sql query

Not sure if this is the forum for this.. If it isn't, I'm sure I'll hear
about it!

I'm looking for help.. Just learning sql, and I'm stuck on this one
exercise.. A query joining 3 tables.. Here is the question:

List the employee name, job, salary, grade and department name for everyone
in the company except clerks. Sort on salary, displaying the highest salary
first.

Here is what I've come up with:

select distinct ename, job, sal, grade, dname from emp, salgrade, dept where
emp.job != 'CLERK' and emp.deptno = dept.deptno order by sal desc;

This query gives me the following output..

ENAME      JOB              SAL      GRADE    DNAME
---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---   -----------
KING       PRESIDENT       5000          5    ACCOUNTING
KING       PRESIDENT       5000          4    ACCOUNTING
KING       PRESIDENT       5000          3    ACCOUNTING
KING       PRESIDENT       5000          2    ACCOUNTING
KING       PRESIDENT       5000          1    ACCOUNTING
FORD       ANALYST         3000          1    RESEARCH
FORD       ANALYST         3000          2    RESEARCH
FORD       ANALYST         3000          3    RESEARCH
FORD       ANALYST         3000          4    RESEARCH
FORD       ANALYST         3000          5    RESEARCH
SCOTT      ANALYST         3000          5    RESEARCH
SCOTT      ANALYST         3000          4    RESEARCH
SCOTT      ANALYST         3000          3    RESEARCH
SCOTT      ANALYST         3000          2    RESEARCH
SCOTT      ANALYST         3000          1    RESEARCH
JONES      MANAGER         2975          5    RESEARCH
JONES      MANAGER         2975          4    RESEARCH
JONES      MANAGER         2975          3    RESEARCH
JONES      MANAGER         2975          2    RESEARCH
JONES      MANAGER         2975          1    RESEARCH
BLAKE      MANAGER         2850          5    SALES
BLAKE      MANAGER         2850          4    SALES
BLAKE      MANAGER         2850          3    SALES
BLAKE      MANAGER         2850          2    SALES
BLAKE      MANAGER         2850          1    SALES
CLARK      MANAGER         2450          1    ACCOUNTING
CLARK      MANAGER         2450          2    ACCOUNTING
CLARK      MANAGER         2450          3    ACCOUNTING
CLARK      MANAGER         2450          4    ACCOUNTING
CLARK      MANAGER         2450          5    ACCOUNTING
ALLEN      SALESMAN        1600          5    SALES
ALLEN      SALESMAN        1600          4    SALES
ALLEN      SALESMAN        1600          3    SALES
ALLEN      SALESMAN        1600          2    SALES
ALLEN      SALESMAN        1600          1    SALES
TURNER     SALESMAN        1500          5    SALES
TURNER     SALESMAN        1500          4    SALES
TURNER     SALESMAN        1500          3    SALES
TURNER     SALESMAN        1500          2    SALES
TURNER     SALESMAN        1500          1    SALES
MARTIN     SALESMAN        1250          5    SALES
MARTIN     SALESMAN        1250          4    SALES
MARTIN     SALESMAN        1250          3    SALES
MARTIN     SALESMAN        1250          2    SALES
MARTIN     SALESMAN        1250          1    SALES
WARD       SALESMAN        1250          5    SALES
WARD       SALESMAN        1250          4    SALES
WARD       SALESMAN        1250          3    SALES
WARD       SALESMAN        1250          2    SALES
WARD       SALESMAN        1250          1    SALES

50 rows selected.

 I've narrowed the problem down to GRADE, which is in the salgrade table.

desc salgrade;

Name                            Null?    Type
------------------------------- -------- ----
GRADE                                    NUMBER      (grade assigned to a
salary range: 1 to 5)
LOSAL                                    NUMBER       (Low salary range in
the grade)
HISAL                                    NUMBER        (High salary range in
the grade)

There is no common field in salgrade and the other tables.. The only common
field is deptno in the emp and dept tables.

If I remove any reference to the GRADE field, and insert DISTINCT, it
works.. I get:

SQL> select distinct ename, job, sal, dname from emp, salgrade, dept where
emp.job != 'CLERK' and emp.deptno = dept.deptno order by sal desc;

ENAME      JOB                        SAL              DNAME
---------- ---------                     ----------      --------------
KING       PRESIDENT             5000            ACCOUNTING
FORD       ANALYST               3000            RESEARCH
SCOTT      ANALYST              3000            RESEARCH
JONES      MANAGER             2975            RESEARCH
BLAKE      MANAGER            2850            SALES
CLARK      MANAGER            2450           ACCOUNTING
ALLEN      SALESMAN           1600           SALES
TURNER     SALESMAN         1500           SALES
MARTIN     SALESMAN         1250           SALES
WARD       SALESMAN          1250           SALES

So I know the problem is with grade.. I guess I just don't understand why
grade is making each record print out 5 times.  I need to print the
particular grade each person's salary range is in, and I guess I don't know
how to do that.
For the heck of it, here are the salary ranges from the salgrade table:

GRADE      LOSAL      HISAL
---------- ---------- ----------
         1        700       1200
         2       1201       1400
         3       1401       2000
         4       2001       3000
         5       3001       9999

This problem may seem basic.. I can see that I haven't managed to limit the
number of instances of GRADE that the query generates.  Any and all help
would be much appreciated!  I've been hours and hours at this..

Thank you!

Bill Boxall
bboxall@landover.net