In the tradition of work by Shaughnessy (1977) and Bartholomae (1980) applying concepts from second language acquisition research to developing writing, we explore the commonalities of L1 and L2 writers on the specific level of linguistic choices needed to order information within and across sentence boundaries. We propose that many of the kinds…

This article describes the use of African American English (AAE) in the written and oral language of African American adolescents who struggle with writing. Written and oral language samples of 22 African American 10th-grade students were transcribed, analyzed, and coded for AAE, grammatical errors, spelling errors, and punctuation errors. Four…

Designed as part of a multimedia kit, this manual introduces the new punctuation system and serves as a reference source. Fifteen catalog cards illustrate the punctuations used between standard elements of bibliographic description. There is no index or table of contents. (PF)

Nominates the period as the best punctuation mark of the decade. By showing the end of a sentence, the period acknowledges both the power and the helplessness of the word. (SLD)

In this study, the purpose was to determine whether there was concordance among raters in the assessment of the writing performance using analytic rubric; furthermore, factors affecting the assessment process were examined. The analytic rubric used in the study consists of three sections and ten properties: External structure (format, spelling and…

Multifaceted Rasch measurement was used in the present study with 91 student and 4 teacher raters to investigate how self- and peer-assessments work in comparison with teacher assessments in actual university writing classes. The results indicated that many self-raters assessed their own writing lower than predicted. This was particularly true for…

Several previous studies (B. C. Adams, C. Clifton, & D. C. Mitchell, 1998; D. C. Mitchell, 1987; R. P. G. van Gompel & M. J. Pickering, 2001) have explored the question of whether the parser initially analyzes a noun phrase that follows an intransitive verb as the verb's direct object. Three eye-tracking experiments examined this issue in more…

The National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments are designed to assess literacy and numeracy of all Australian school children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and to act as diagnostics as to whether children are meeting intended educational outcomes. Tests began in May 2008, and have been run annually since then. Results of the…

Our present mode of punctuation may survive for factual and formal work, but it is now ridiculous to button up imaginative work with full stops, semi-colons, and old-style commas that could be better zipped up with a few new-style commas or dashes. (Author)

To ensure that employees can write clear letters and reports, a first step is to make certain students improve their ability to punctuate. (Author)

A retired professor considers a semicolon as a nuisance as we can never get to the good part. He states his preferences for a comma and a colon over a semicolon.

Provides a set of criteria for acceptable use of the comma splice. (DD)

This textbook is a second reader for Catholic children. The contents include age-appropriate stories and passages on the importance of emphasis, consonant sounds, marked letters, and punctuation marks. A list of Roman and Arabic numbers is also included.

The author shows the importance of punctuation: why it is used, and how it is used. (MR)