Punctuation is Power

[lizziesmom]

I doubt if this is in any of Steve Maxwell's book on communication but I thought I would share the message. Love it!

[fun2beme]

Recently saw a FB post -

Punctuation is the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit.

[FJismyheadship]

Let's eat, Grandma!

Let's eat Grandma!

[Marian the Librarian]

A panda goes into a restaurant, and eats shoots and leaves.

A panda goes into a restaurant, and eats, shoots, and leaves.

[lizziesmom]

A panda goes into a restaurant, and eats shoots and leaves.

A panda goes into a restaurant, and eats, shoots, and leaves.

Wasn't this a bestselling book a few years ago?

[emiliawasframed]

Wasn't this a bestselling book a few years ago?

Yes, I sometimes use it in my grammar classes.

[crazyforkate]

I had an English teacher who was very fond of the story in the OP. Punctuation seems to be the most abused part of grammar at the moment. I swear no one knows what to do with a comma anymore.

[SpeakNow]

My high school English teacher used to hand this out at the start of each school year.

[Artemis]

I had an English teacher who was very fond of the story in the OP. Punctuation seems to be the most abused part of grammar at the moment. I swear no one knows what to do with a comma anymore.

I do. Sigh. It's what I do for a living and what I am doing right now, or should be doing instead of surfing.

I create punctuation and grammar handbooks and exercises for an online educational publisher. I'm currently writing content for an app which will give students from 6 to 16 graded grammar and punctuation exercises, to go along with the grammar handbooks, writing exercises, grammar exercises and exemplar texts which I have already created for the publisher's website.

Next stop: the difference between restricted and unrestricted relative clauses.

[apple1]

I do. Sigh. It's what I do for a living and what I am doing right now, or should be doing instead of surfing.

I create punctuation and grammar handbooks and exercises for an online educational publisher. I'm currently writing content for an app which will give students from 6 to 16 graded grammar and punctuation exercises, to go along with the grammar handbooks, writing exercises, grammar exercises and exemplar texts which I have already created for the publisher's website.

Next stop: the difference between restricted and unrestricted relative clauses.

(Disclaimer: I realize that every job has its good points and its bad points).

What a great job! I would love doing something like that.

I am a clinical lab scientist, but I work in an area that allows me to do a lot of technical writing. I love writing; it is my favorite part of my job.

[Artemis]

Actually the creative part of it, and the ideas, and the structuring the games for progression, and thinking about how it ties in with the National Curriculum, and is also logically organised, and challenging but not too difficult, that's really fun.

Creating the sentences is fun too - I have to try hard not to be irreverant about authority in my content - you know a sentence such as: 'The government, which has been discredited by the banking scandal, engaged frantically in damage-limiting PR.' (Not that I'd give that to eleven year olds learning about unrestricted relative clauses!)

It's the minutiae of writing the spreadsheets, ensuring that what is presented to pupils in the game ties in with the correct answer even down to the last space or punctuation point, providing all the fly-past options, and ensuring that the spreadsheet is 100% accurate that takes the time and can be a bit tedious. The coders hate me if I haven't proofread several times.

In a spreadsheet with 15 ten-question games and therefore 150 sentences, + 150 sentence answers + 150 sets of up to nine options to choose from, it's amazing how difficult it is to come up wth something that is 100% accurate up to the last tiny character, when you know that one character difference in your writing will trigger a 'wrong answer' mark, even if the child has selected the correct options. (And a 'character' difference can be hitting the space button twice, instead of once.)

Still, that's the bread and butter. The jam is all the lovely fun creating texts and the ideas bit.

[apple1]

...Still, that's the bread and butter. The jam is all the lovely fun creating texts and the ideas bit.

:D

[Marianne]

Not in English, i hope you'll understand with my translation !

"allons manger grand mère !"

"Let's eat grandma !"

"Allons manger, grand mère !"

"Let's eat, grandma !"

Punctuation saves life !