Critical Conventions

Why Do We Have to Use Punctuation?

Tomorrow I plan to teach my introductory lesson to English mechanics' conventions (punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc.) from a critical, historical perspective - the why of conventions, rather than just the "the rule is _______; accept it" approach. I hit the "why" from two angles: one, why do conventions improve communication, and two, where (historically) did these conventions come from. My source of information is the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss - a fabulous resource I use throughout the year.

I created the PowerPoint presentation above last year. Tomorrow I'm planning to open the lesson by handing out a completely punctuation-free document to the students. I'll pretend all's well and ask them to read out loud. My prediction is that they'll try, find they can't decipher its meaning well, and buy in to the lesson. I'll couple the PowerPoint presentation with references to the Context Timeline to help students grasp the historic significance of punctuation. Understanding from where the somewhat arbitrary rules come will (hopefully) help the students become more conscious of their use of punctuation, and thereby more conscious writers and editors as we learn these rules throughout the year.