Proofreading UK Primary School Reports

by Mark Campbell

  Here’s a list showing real examples of correctly spelt words being applied completely wrongly. Some of these are bizarre! The correct spellings are in square brackets:

  Amy arrives punctually every morning at quarter too [to].

  Rory needs to continue with applying her [his] know [new] phonics knowledge to her [his] spellings.

  She needs to make sure she reads back for [what] she has written to ensure it makes sense.

  Rory has excellent fine motor control and is able cut to [to cut] stick and colour accurately and independently.

  Rory has always show [shown] enthusiasm for the subject.

  Amy’s letters are being formed accurately and nearly [neatly].

  She is able to uses [use] the mouse to select colours for drawing.

  Amy has researched, planned and wrote [written] non-chronological reports about festivals of light and farm animals.

  SEMI-COLONS

  The semi-colon is the second most misunderstood and misused punctuation mark in the English language [see Apostrophes for the first]. Most people who use it, use it inaccurately. But it is also the least important punctuation mark. It is, to be brutally honest, entirely unnecessary. You do not need to use it. Ever. But if you want to take the plunge and drop the odd one in to spice things up a bit, then keep reading.

  The semi-colon is really only used in one very specific instance: to join two separate and self-contained sentences together. Note that I did not use a semi-colon in that last sentence. “The semi-colon is really only used in one very specific instance” is a self-contained sentence, but “to join two separate and self-contained sentences together” is not.

  Here are three examples of an incorrect use of the semi-colon:

  Amy uses the equipment with imagination and safety; climbing over, under and through the course.

  Rory can write his own simple story including story elements such as; setting, dialogue and characterisation.

  He has a generally accurate grasp of sentence punctuation; writing fluently, with considerable thought and inventiveness.

  In the first example, the half before the semi-colon is a complete and self-contained sentence, but the second half is not—we call this a ‘fragment’. In the second, the semi-colon seems to have been thrown in randomly instead of a colon, which in itself would be wrong as the list is part of the sentence [see separate entry on the colon]. The third example is the same as the first—remove the semi-colon and you are left with a fragment.

  Here are the same three examples with their correct punctuation:

  Amy uses the equipment with imagination and safety, climbing over, under and through the course.

  Rory can write his own simple story including story elements such as setting, dialogue and characterisation.

  He has a generally accurate grasp of sentence punctuation, writing fluently with considerable thought and inventiveness.

  As you can see, the semi-colons in the first and last examples have been replaced with commas. And the last example doesn’t not need its second comma at all. The middle example works perfectly without any punctuation replacing the semi-colon.

  As a general rule, steer clear of semi-colons. You don’t need them. If you do want to show off and use them, ask yourself whether the two self-contained sentences you are joining together actually need joining together. Are they thematically similar? If they are not, don’t do it. Have a look at this:

  Rory works hard at Maths; he has trouble identifying 3D shapes.

  Does this really need a semi-colon? Technically the grammar is correct, but the two sentences are not really connected. Rory working hard at Maths doesn’t really have any bearing on his trouble with identifying 3D shapes. It would work better as two separate sentences like this:

  Rory works hard at Maths. He has trouble identifying 3D shapes.

  Or even better you could replace the semi-colon with a comma and add the word “but”:

  Rory works hard at Maths, but he has trouble identifying 3D shapes.

  Note that you need to add “but” to avoid the cardinal sin of ‘comma-splicing’, the widespread misuse of using a comma to connect two sentences. Commas cannot connect sentences. Never use them for this purpose.

  However, the following two sentences are linked thematically, and so a semi-colon is acceptable:

  Rory works hard at Maths; I have been very impressed with his progress.

  I hinted at another use for the semi-colon. This is for that rare situation when you might want to write a list of things—perhaps Science topics—and individual elements may contain commas. For example, you may want to write a list that contains the following topics:

  Forces, Movement and Speed

  Plants, Animals and Minerals

  Liquids, Solids and Gases

  If you wrote a list in the normal way, separated by commas, it would be open to misinterpretation or confusion:

  This year Rory has been studying Forces, Movement and Speed, Plants, Animals and Minerals and Liquids, Solids and Gases.

  It looks as if Rory has been studying ‘Forces’, ‘Plants’ and ‘Animals and Minerals and Liquids’. The only solution to this is to use a semi-colon in order to separate the topics. It is a bit ungainly, but there’s no better alternative:

  This year Rory has been studying Forces, Movement and Speed; Plants, Animals and Minerals; and Liquids, Solids and Gases.

  Lists that do not have elements with commas should not use semi-colons. This is wrong:

  The areas Amy has covered are Grouping and Changing Materials; Plants and Animals in the Local Environment; Forces and Movement; Using Electricity; Variation and Light and Dark.

  Remember: a semi-colon is not the same as a comma or a colon. Never replace a comma or a colon with a semi-colon. It will always be wrong.

  In a nutshell, do yourself a favour and avoid using the semi-colon altogether. It’s really not worth the hassle.

  PRACTICE AND PRACTISE

  People use the two spellings of this word indiscriminately. For the record, “practice” is a noun (“Amy is doing music practice after school”) and “practise” is a verb (“Amy likes to practise her music after school”). So these two examples are wrong:

  Rory maintains concentration when practicing these skills during lessons.

  It is good practise for Amy to do her homework daily.

  While these two are correct:

  Amy needs more practice in extended writing.

  Rory needs to practise times tables.

  Ignore your computer’s spellchecker because it is American, and American spellings of this word are different.

  THIRD-PERSON PRONOUNS

  When you cut and paste segments together, and replace one child’s name with another, it’s also vitally important to alter any references to “he” or “she” where necessary. You can’t use the computer’s spellcheck here. Read it aloud. Does it make sense? Here is an example of where it has gone wrong:

  She is always keen to work on the computer and has used the computer to publish his own work.

  CONCLUSION

  I hope you have found this short guide useful when you come to write your report. My intention is that it will make your life much easier because you will be submitting reports that are error-free and won’t need laborious checking—by you or your headteacher. The majority of these examples are taken from real reports, although the names of the children have been changed to protect the innocent.

  And if you do find any mistakes in this guide, please let me know at mark.campbell10@virgin.net so I can correct them for future editions!

 

 

 
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