ABC of Punctuation

1. Recap full range of punctuation. Find examples from your own reading. Develop understanding of where to use it! ABC of Punctuation

2. Apostrophe ’ • To show omission (letters missed out in contractions or dialect) e.g. don’t, they’re, nothin’ • To show possession e.g. Fred’s cat, the boys’ room REMEMBER: never use just for plurals!

3. Asterisk * • A text organisation feature: used to make references to other information elsewhere on the page*, or to indicate missed out information. * e.g. a footnote

4. Bullet Points • To organise key information into concise, clear points.

5. ( Brackets ) • Used to separate additional, non-essential information, or to add writer asides. e.g. Fred’s brother (who had always worn black) looked great in his new red pullover.

6. Capital Letters ABC Used for initial letters of: • Titles • Names of people and places • Names of dates – days, months etc. • Any other proper noun …and of course, to start a sentence or at the start of speech!

7. Colon : • Used to indicate up coming information, such as introducing a list. e.g. The food lay ready on the table: buns, cakes, jellies and pies, looking more appetising than anything Fred had ever seen before!

8. Comma , • Used to separate words in a list e.g. Cakes, ice-cream, jam and pop • To separate clauses in sentences e.g. While the weather was cold, Fred had to stay indoors. • To separate speech from the rest of a sentence

9. Dash - • To indicate additional information, either within or at the end of a sentence e.g. It was quiet – too quiet. Fred ran – as he had never run before – but he was still too late.

10. Ellipsis … • Used to indicate words missed out • To slow text down • To build suspense e.g. She turned the handle…slowly it turned…slowly, until with a swift push it swung open to reveal…

11. Exclamation mark ! • To indicate expression of emotion e.g. I can’t wait for Friday! Oh no! Hooray!

12. Full stop . • To indicate the end of a sentence, or an abbreviation e.g. e.g. Mr. St. This sentence has now come to a full stop.

13. Hyphen - • To join parts of a word, or compound words e.g. skate-board

14. “ Inverted commas ” • Used to indicate direct speech, or a direct quote from a person or a text e.g. “Hello,” said Fred. We know she was sour because it says, “Never had he seen anyone with such an unpleasant look upon their face.”

15. Paragraph • Begin a new paragraph for every change e.g. a change in: • Time • Place • Theme • Idea • Speaker

16. Question mark ? • Used to indicate an interrogative sentence (in other words: a question!) e.g. Are you ready to punctuate?

17. Semi-Colon ; • To link or list related sentences: It was raining hard; there was no way Fred could go out now. The sun shone; the breeze blew gently; the air was sweet with scents.

18. Reading Detective! • Find examples of different punctuation in what we have read today. • Why has it been used? • Challenge: can you say why it has been used without looking back to yesterday’s work? Can you find an example for each type? If not, can you make up an example of your own?

19. Review • I’m ready to go! • I need a bit more work on seeing them ‘in action’. • I’m a bit unsure of:__________