"Titular colonicity" (presence of colon in title) is observed to discriminate among degrees of scholarly character in the order specified: theoretical journals exhibited the greatest colonicity (34 percent), empirical next (18 percent) and pedagogical least (10 percent). Implications for theory and research are noted. (Author/RL)

Two sets of catalog entries--one using unrevised 1967 AACR chapter 6 rules, the other ISBD--were used to test the correctness and response time of undergraduate student responses to specific questions about elements on the catalog cards. The study showed that the ISBD format aids reader understanding. (Author)

Analyzes the verse of the French poets Stephane Mallarme and Guillaume Apollinaire, contrasting their purposes in suppressing normal punctuation in their work. (MM)

Discusses word processing and desktop publishing and offers suggestions for creating documents that look more professional, including proportional type size, spacing, the use of punctuation marks, italics, tabs and margins, and paragraph styles. (LRW)

Discusses the vocabulary of English punctuation terms, largely unchanged since the Norman conquest in 1066. Discusses the meaning of the period, colon, comma, question mark, exclamation point, slash, parenthesis, brackets, asterisk, hyphen, and ampersand. (RS)

Discussion of natural language processing focuses on experiments using linear discriminant analysis to distinguish "Wall Street Journal" texts from "Federal Register" tests using information about the frequency of occurrence of word boundaries, sentence boundaries, and punctuation marks. Displays and interprets results in terms…

Students will have to develop a presence on the page along with mastering grammar, spelling, and punctuation in order to become accomplished writers. Students should be given opportunities to hear their own written voices and the written voices of the others, their peers, their teachers and the best authors because the voice helps them to develop…

The rhetorical power of punctuation conventions as well as the effect of violating those conventions should be explained to the students. The craft in conventions can be found anywhere and all good writers use it in their work.

Three eye movement studies examined the role of punctuation in reading. In Experiment 1, although a comma at the end of a clause facilitated overall reading times for the sentence, first pass times were longer at the end of comma-marked clauses than clauses without a comma (or the same material in clause medial position). The data supported the…

To assist journalism educators in the development of spelling-grammar-punctuation examinations for their students, this paper traces the development of such an exam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Descriptions of exam construction, administrative procedures, suggestions for exam improvement, and preliminary exam results are…

Argues that composition teachers should accept as little blame as possible for students' errors in using the apostrophe, that a large chunk of the blame should be assigned to workbooks with oversimple rules, and that basic writers have more important things to worry about. (RS)

Suggestions are made for creative class activities that help students become more familiar with punctuation marks and their use. (JD)

This article is in the form of a letter from a hypothetical former student on her first job in word processing, looking back at her educational experience and how it helped her. She shares her thoughts with her instructor and comments on areas that she feels could have been emphasized more. Grammar/punctuation, proofreading,…

A disturbing deterioration has been noticed recently in the editing of history books. They have mistakes in grammar, word usage, style, and punctuation. Specific examples are provided. (RM)