Punctuation and Grammar Level 3

Diagnostic test results You all showed areas of weakness within the punctuation and grammar section In the test, they expect full command of all punctuation marks Hopefully this will be revision

Objectives Why is punctuation important? Main punctuation marks Activities

Why is punctuation important? Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind and thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours? Jill Dear Jack, I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind and thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Jill

Capital Letters When do we use capital letters?

Commas When do we use commas?

Letters Closed punctuation 22 Albert Street, Nottingham, NG7 4ED Dear Mr Jones, Yours sincerely, Open punctuation 22 Albert Street Nottingham NG7 4ED Dear Mr Jones Yours sincerely

Commas Activity Badminton cricket squash and table tennis are all games that use a bat or racquet. The order includes sherry brandy German wine and spirits. Nevertheless he decided to continue eating beef. Her passport which she needed for her holiday had expired All our retail outlets which now sell wines and spirits showed an increased turnover this year

Commas Activity “I hope” she said “I’ll see you again on Saturday.” Each time I called his phone was engaged. Realising he felt ill I decided to go alone. I cooked Tony bought some wine and I watched a film on TV.

Commas are not sticky You can’t just stick two sentences or clauses together. Ravi forgot to set his alarm, he woke up late. This is a common error known as the comma splice Here you need a conjunction or a semi colon Ravi forgot to set his alarm, so he woke up late. Ravi forgot to set his alarm; he woke up late.

The Semi Colon Stronger than a comma but weaker than a full stop It links connected clauses that don’t have conjunction When the items in a list are long clauses

Inverted Commas Inverted commas are used to do three things:

Single or Double? The two are now considered interchangeable. I would recommend using double for quotations Single for titles and to make words stand out Be consistent

Exclamation Marks The most (wrongly) overused punctuation mark by young people today!!!!!! Avoid for academic work. ONLY to be used when expressing some emotion – e.g. excitement, pleasure or fear – or in a command Oh! Stop!

Apostrophes Apostrophes have two uses: To show some letters have been taken out of a word to shorten it. To show that something belongs to something else.

Shortening words The apostrophe goes where the letters have been removed I will becomes Do not becomes Careful where there is irregular shortening Will not becomes Phone should really be ’phone as in telephone Or 1976 could become ’76

Possession – Singular One tail belongs to one cat – The ***** tail The cat’s tail - The apostrophe usually goes before the ‘s’ Many records belonging to one James - ***** records James’ records - If it is a name that already ends in ‘s’ the apostrophe goes after What about belonging to it? Its coat was shiny – no apostrophe because that would be it is.

Possession – Plural Many bowls belonging to many dogs – the ***** bowls. The dogs’ bowls - If it is plural, and already ending in ‘s’, the apostrophe goes after Many hats belonging to many men – the ***** hats. The men’s hats – If the plural of the word doesn’t end in ‘s’ it goes at the end of the word.

What about plural? Sale – CDs half price! Sale – CD’s half price! The apostrophe should never be used to denote plurals: New Menu’s available should read Menus Here are some real life examples:

What should they be?

Punctuation Quiz On your sheets write the answer We will pass them to someone else to mark Write clearly

5 minutes

Alice in Wonderland Put all of these skills to use in identifying where the punctuation should go in this passage. Teams – different colour pen each Remember to touch your colour pen Alice - no punctuation.doc

Next Week Synthesising