Any English teachers out there?

margaretclare · 14 October 2008 at 7:42AM

Punctuating in the way you describe went out in the mid-1960s.

It used to be:

Mr. J. Smith, F.R.C.S.,
190, High Street,
Anytown,
Anyshire.

Now it's all lined up down the left-hand side:

Mr J Smith FRCS
190 High Street
ANYTOWN
Anyshire

No punctuation at all!

Also you would write: Dear Mr Smith rather than Dear Mr. Smith,

HTH

Oldernotwiser · 14 October 2008 at 8:52AM

I'm with Looby Loo on this, it's the difference between the document being typed or hand written. On this basis I'd agree with your tutor. As well as this, if you're paying somebody experienced to coach your daughter for her exam, there's not much point if you're going to argue and undermine her!

Edit: And yes, I was a teacher, with a degree in English.

Oldernotwiser · 14 October 2008 at 9:19AM

sloughflint wrote: »

Phew, I was still hand-writing letters in the nineties.

I still am!

margaretclare · 14 October 2008 at 11:46AM

sloughflint wrote: »

Yikes! I was still doing it like that in the nineties.

I was a copy-typist in Rowntree's of York in 1968 (later Rowntree Mackintosh then taken over by a Swiss firm).

It was the latest thing then and it was what they insisted on.

Oldernotwiser · 14 October 2008 at 12:58PM

sloughflint wrote: »

Poor you lol. The nineties coincided with me getting my first computer. The wonders of mailmerge, copy and pasting, backspace button.
No looking back for me.

I can do most of that at work. I thought that we were talking about personal letters.

callow · 14 October 2008 at 2:48PM

Thanks for all the comments.

I seems that the general consensus in "without the commas".

My daughter goes to a place where they do exam practice. It is run by a couple who are very old fashioned, they are in their 70s. They were the ones who took marks off my daughter's letter for not having the punctuation.

My daughter did have a specific English tutor for a few weeks. I have just spoken to her (she is a fellow mother at the school gate) and she has said "without the commas". She also said that there was no comments in the marking scheme for this. The marks relate mostly to the content of the letter.

Thanks again