How to teach the English punctuation system?

The English punctuation system plays a crucial role in writing. If your students are preparing for an exam, or want to write an essay or a strong motivation letter, they will need good knowledge of the English punctuation system. In fact, poor punctuation can even cause misunderstanding between the writer and the reader. So if you wonder how to teach to punctuate correctly, go on reading the article.

Teach basic sentence structure and related grammar

If you want to introduce and teach your students the English punctuation system thoroughly and properly, first make sure that they know the structure of the basic sentence. Explain that there are independent and dependent clauses which are usually separated by a comma.

The next point is to present grammatical elements, such as conjunctions, direct speech, conjunctive adverbs, etc, that are closely connected with punctuation.

Below you can find a list of the most common punctuation marks that students should learn according to their level.

— Beginner — Full stop (.) is used to mark the end of declarative and imperative sentences. E.g. I usually get up at 9 o’clock.

Comma (,) is used to separate items in a list. E.g. We should buy milk, eggs, flour, and sugar for the cake.

Question mark (?) marks the end of a question. E.g. Are you a pilot?

— Elementary — Exclamation mark (!) is used to convey strong emotion. E.g. What a beautiful view!

Apostrophe (’) marks the contraction and is used in place of omitted letters. E.g. I’m a student. He’s a doctor.

We also use ‘apostrophe’ to show that a person/ a thing owns something. E. g. Bob’s friends, my grandparents’ house.

— Pre — intermediate — Comma (,) is also used to separate words that are not part of the sentence. E.g. Unfortunately, he missed his flight. Sir, please take your seat.

We use commas in greetings and closings when writing emails and letters. E. g. Dear madam, Yours sincerely, 

Commas are also used to separate linking words. E. g. However, she had other plans.

— Intermediate — Use commas after dependent clauses. E. g. When Ann gets home from work, she usually watches TV for an hour.

Use commas when there is a non — essential relative clause. E.g. People love to celebrate New Year’s Eve, which is the last day of the year. The semicolon (;) is used to combine closely related sentences, e.g. I thought it was amazing; she thought it was terrible.

The colon (:) introduces information after an independent clause, e.g. Whenever you drive, you must do the following: fasten your seat belt, obey traffic laws, and keep your eyes on the road.

Quotation (“”) marks are used to enclose the titles of stories, articles and when we have indirect speech, e.g. “I was careful,” he answered.

— Upper — intermediate — dash (-) is used to mark a break in the thought, e.g. I need just one more bit of information-where were you born?

Dash also indicates the omission of words or of letters in a word, e.g. 1995-2003

Use parenthesis () to enclose a word, phrase, sentence, or group of sentences which make an explanation or comment without changing the meaning of the sentence, e.g. Some plants (cactus, for example) can get along with little water.

Teach in context

Punctuation system is not only about rules. If your students know the rules by heart, it does not necessarily mean they will not make any mistakes. Hence, you should introduce punctuation marks in context. You can use your students’ favourite books and choose some extract from there. They will be much more motivated to analyse sentences and punctuation marks from their favourite books.

In the following websites you will find a lot of exercises and useful apps on punctuation marks.

University of Bristol

English Grammar

English practice

Apps for practicing punctuation

App — Punctuation Marks for Apple

Teach punctuation as an editing and proofreading instrument

Finally, punctuation system is closely correlated with the final stage of the writing process — editing and proofreading. Here, students will have enough time and concentration to think over punctuation marks by analysing main and subordinate clauses, and looking critically at their paper. If you work in a group, you can also ask your students to check their peer’s essays and correct punctuation marks where necessary. We usually see the next person’s small mistakes, but do not see our obvious ones.

Punctuation system is of great importance to communicate with the reader effectively and properly, hence while teaching writing do not ignore this point.