Experimenting with Punctuation

This resource is designed to get learners thinking about using punctuation more deliberately in their writing for effect and also revise key punctuation marks. Designed initially for GCSE English resits, this could also be appropriate for pre-GCSE and functional skills.

The idea is for learners to find out what different punctuation marks mean, see examples of how they can change sentences, meanings and effects/add information etc., and play with punctuation themselves.

Punctuation explored: full stop, comma, exclamation mark, question mark, colon, semi-colon, ellipsis, dashes and speech marks. (Also includes space for defining an apostrophe).

Resource includes slides with a sentence changed with different punctuation marks and a worksheet with space for job descriptions of each mark and space for experimenting with the punctuation marks.

Reasonably "active" learning, with the idea for the learners to do most of the work - they can discuss the impact on each sentence and define each mark as well as coming up with their own examples.