Punctual Punctuation

In honor of National Punctuation Day...

I remember when Emily was much smaller, I had the dubious position in our homeschool group of teaching composition writing. I say "dubious" because, while it was enjoyable, none of the students really understood how to write. I was a little stunned shocked amazed by this since they were all middle-school age and should have had some kind of grasp on this process.

So, after looking through their first papers, I decided to go back to "square one" and help them learn (or relearn?) the basics.

We reviewed the parts of speech, the subject and predicate in a sentence, and the various punctuation marks. It was almost -- but not quite -- depressing how much they didn't know. I kept wondering and worrying if I was expecting too much.

Then one student "made my day" and helped me understand why I needed to reteach these foundation stones in writing.

I gave a little punctuation quiz and asked the students to write down as many of the punctuation marks as they could remember and explain the use of each.

One of her answers? (And, to quote Dave Barry, I am NOT making this up.)

"Coma (she meant "comma")...like when you want to rest."

Say no more?

Say no more.

Happy! Happy? Happy... Happy National Punctuation Day!