Print off the extract from Chapter One of "Hard Times" (by Charles Dickens), below, and replace the missing punctuation. When complete, email me for the answers. I will send you the extract with all the punctuation missing below.
I've asked you to print it off as, if you copy it into a program on your computer, it may indicate the punctuation errors for you and then, of course, there's no point to the task. Overall there is a score out of
28 for
commas, a score out of
6 for
full stops, a score of
one for the speech marks and, finally, a score out of
two for identification of the
semi-colon and
colon.
Record your score in the comments box below the post.
jps@budehaven.cornwall.sch.uk
Chapter I — The One Thing Needful
“NOW, what I want is, facts Teach these boys and girls nothing but fact Facts alone are wanted in life Plant nothing else, and root out everything else You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts nothing else will ever be of any service to them This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children Stick to Facts sir!”
[6 full stops have been removed; 1 colon and 1 comma from the first paragraph]
The scene was a plain bare monotonous vault of a schoolroom, and the speaker’s square forefinger emphasised his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster’s sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead which had his eyebrows for its base while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth which was wide thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice which was inflexible dry and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair which bristled on the skirts of his bald head a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface all covered with knobs like the crust of a plum pie as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker’s obstinate carriage square coat square legs square shoulders, — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp like a stubborn fact as it was, — all helped the emphasis.
[21 commas have been removed from the second paragraph]
In this life we want nothing but Facts sir nothing but Facts!
[2 commas have been removed from this line as well as the speech marks and a semi-colon]
The speaker, and the schoolmaster and the third grown person present all backed a little and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.
[4 commas have been removed from the final paragraph]
