Punctuation and Capitalisation

Curriculum details

Strand

Grammar (Strand 3)

Sub-strand

Punctuation and Capitalisation (3.2)

Content standard

B9.3.2.1 - Demonstrate mastery of capitalisation and punctuation in communication

Indicator

B9.3.2.1.1 - Identify and use punctuation marks (dash, hyphen, bracket) in context

Suggested placement

Term 2, Week 11 (Week 23 of the year)

Our suggestion, laid out in curriculum order across three terms of twelve weeks. NaCCA does not fix the week, so follow your school's scheme of learning.

Source document note

The official curriculum document has a fault in this entry, so the curriculum text above is transcribed exactly as printed:

• exemplars - p.87: on this page the bullets of 'Use the hyphen at the end of a line ...' and 'Use the bracket to:' are set left of the column rule and were restored from the printed page; the boxed two-line example is the figure referenced above, and the page prints no content standard and no competencies

Curriculum reference

English Language, Common Core Programme (JHS1-JHS3), 2023, p. 86

Transcribed from the official NaCCA publication. Check this page against the source.

Exemplars (from the NaCCA curriculum)

- Use the dash to:
  - mark the beginning and the end of an interruption in a sentence. E.g. My son - where has he gone - will be happy to see you.
  - introduce an explanation of a word or an expression earlier mentioned.
  E.g. It was not a lion - it was a tiger - furiously lashing its way through the undergrowth.
  - introduce a list. E.g. Everyone needs good qualities - loyalty, discipline, honesty etc.
- Use the hyphen to:
  - form compound words. E.g. father-in-law
  - join words in attributive compound. E.g. a well-known artist
  - join a prefix to a root word. E.g. co-ordinate
  - mark expressions that look the same but different. E.g.
  a poor-rate collection;
  a poor rate-collection.
  - separate two similar consonant or vowel sounds. E.g. pre-empt, Ross-shire etc.
  - indicate fractions or multipliers. E.g. two-thirds, hundred-folds
  etc
- Use the hyphen at the end of a line when writing to indicate that the word is not hyphenated. It is broken for lack of space. Such words should be broken at a syllable. E.g. education, information etc.
  - She gave me information about the lost boy.
  She gave me information
  about the lost boy.
  

- Use the bracket to:
  - enclose something that is added to the sentence but not considered to be of major importance.
  - offer explanation to something that was said earlier.
  - enclose cross reference.