Punctuation

Punctuation is crucial to aid the smooth reading of texts and is a powerful tool in shaping meaning more clearly. The absence and/or misuse of punctuation can lead to ambiguity and a misunderstanding of key ideas. Simple punctuation include:

Capital letters	first letter of a sentence, a proper noun, or a proper adjective.
Full stops	punctuation marker used to indicate the end of a sentence that is a statement or command.
Exclamation marks	punctuation marker used at the end of a sentence to emphasise the emotion, humour, or feeling that is contained in the sentence. Exclamation marks are always used at the end of sentences containing a command – Go!
Question marks	punctuation marker used at the end of a sentence to indicate that a question is asked. Used to end sentences.
Commas	simple punctuation marker used to indicate the grammatical organisation of sentences. Commas are used in sentences: to indicate separation between parts of a sentence such as clauses or phrases where such separation is important to the meaning. For example: ‘Children, who cannot lift such heavy weights, will not be allowed to participate’ compared to ‘Children who cannot lift such heavy weights will not be allowed to participate’. to separate words, phrases or numbers in a series. For example: ‘Children like to eat apples, bananas, oranges and watermelons’.

Teaching strategies for punctuation

Stage 1 – simple punctuation

Stage 2 – simple punctuation

Stage 2 – direct and indirect speech

Stage 2 – supporting English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) students

Stage 3 – commas

Stage 3 – apostrophes

Stage 3 – quotation marks

Stage 4 – brackets

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