Punctuation

Filey

What level of punctuation is expected from a year 7 child these days? My grand daughter is nearly 12. She showed me a letter she has written as part of her English homework and I was surprised to see she doesn't seem to use much punctation, even capitals at the beginnings of sentences, full stops, and writes im for I'm. And she is working in level 4 or 5. I was surprised as I thought they did all this at Primary school. . She is an avid reader too but it doesn't seem to have rubbed off on her. Maybe I'm just old fashioned

gingin_2

Filey wrote: »

What level of punctuation is expected from a year 7 child these days? My grand daughter is nearly 12. She showed me a letter she has written as part of her English homework and I was surprised to see she doesn't seem to use much punctation, even capitals at the beginnings of sentences, full stops, and writes im for I'm. And she is working in level 4 or 5. I was surprised as I thought they did all this at Primary school. . She is an avid reader too but it doesn't seem to have rubbed off on her. Maybe I'm just old fashioned

My six year old (year one) is being taught to use full stops, capital letters and the apostrophe. She is six and not in any advanced writing group. She seems to have grasped it, although it can be hit and miss.

ailuro2

MY DD is the same age, and tends to use punctuation pretty well. All the capitals are ther, including the ones for proper nouns.
I have spent the last few years pointing out bad punctuation when I see it so she knows how important it is to get things right to avoid mix ups. She knows from school how commas and apostrophes work, but struggles a bit with when to use semi colons and hyphens.;)

Get her a book about grammar, there are lots of them out there (Eats, shoots and leaves is the best known) It could be just her school isn't too hot on grammar, I know mine wasn't and I still struggle with it even now I'm 40. Most of the time I'm OK but it would be nice to have better grammar skills.:o

Of course in my day we would never have written I'm, it would always be I am...:o

mountainofdebt

Filey,

You're not old fashioned .....but I have a theory that texting has alot to do with it.

gonzo127

something that has stuck with me and something i have used with my step children to show them the importance of grammer and punctuation (although i have difficulty with it all) is the following

A teacher asks his students to punctuate this sentence: "Woman without her man is nothing."

The men all write, "Woman, without her man, is nothing."

The women all write, "Woman. Without her, man is nothing!"

travelgran

Yes, she should have completed all this and more in primary school and must have done so to achieve Levels 4/5. Is she just more relaxed (and therefore less careful) when writing to you and has also slipped into semi-text mode?

gonzo127

travelgran wrote: »

Yes, she should have completed all this and more in primary school and must have done so to achieve Levels 4/5. Is she just more relaxed (and therefore less careful) when writing to you and has also slipped into semi-text mode?

thats a good point how long does she spend on MSN, facebook etc as that seems to kill kids use of grammer etc

csh_2

travelgran wrote: »

Yes, she should have completed all this and more in primary school and must have done so to achieve Levels 4/5. Is she just more relaxed (and therefore less careful) when writing to you and has also slipped into semi-text mode?

Actually, in my DD's school (she has left primary now) they 'teach' the idea of puncuation but were very lax on picking them up with any errors.
Her school books, full of marked work, had lots of errors, none of which had ever been circled or highlighted which was what happened in my day.

The OP states this was homework to be handed in so I don't see why she would have been relaxed or in semi text mode as you put it.


To the OP: yes, I think grammer, punctuation and spelling are all getting worse in general and I don't think that schools put the same emphasis on the standard of written work that they used too.

Not sure this is entirely a bad thing as education now is about much more than the 3 R's and rightly so.

So to sum up, you are indeed old fashioned

gonzo127

csh wrote: »

To the OP: yes, I think grammer, punctuation and spelling are all getting worse in general and I don't think that schools put the same emphasis on the standard of written work that they used too.

Not sure this is entirely a bad thing as education now is about much more than the 3 R's and rightly so.

So to sum up, you are indeed old fashioned

I think the problem with this is, it is a bad thing that grammer and punctuation are not taught with the same emphasis.

Just look at my example above, punctuation can change the entire meaning of a phrase. And not being taught it because they are too busy teaching the latest 'new' part of their education is setting them up for problems in later life.

clairec79

At her last parents evening we got told that our 8 year old keeps forgetting full stops (remembers capital letters though) so they are definately expected to do it younger, (the 6 year old does as well) with her though I do think the forgetting full stops is writing as she speaks, the girl can talk without stopping for breath so teaching them you need punctuation so when you are reading it you can breathe doesn't work well for her.

Kaleidoscope27

I was in a club a few weeks ago and overheard a conversation in the toilets. One girl who by the sounds of it was a teacher was telling her friend about an essay one of her pupils had handed in. It was written in text speak, with little punctuation. She even offered to have it re-written for him, in proper English, telling him he would fail if he handed it in like that. He told her he WANTED to hand it in like that. So she failed the essay.

I think text speak, MSN, facebook, twitter etc, has got a lot to answer for in how the younger generations write.