Grammar, Punctuation & Register

What this lesson covers

Grammar, Punctuation & Register is a 8-part O Level English lesson. Each part makes one point and then hands over to the next, so it can be read in a sitting or picked up again at the part you stopped on. It defines the idea in plain words before using it, works through an example step by step, breaks the topic into its parts and compares them, shows where it is used outside the textbook, names the mistakes that cost marks in an exam, ends with a recap of what to remember.

How it begins

There is no grammar question on the paper. There is a grammar mark on every question, because the writing bands describe accuracy explicitly: a script with frequent basic errors cannot reach the top band however interesting its content. The good news is that most lost accuracy marks come from a short list of repeated mistakes, not from an incomplete knowledge of English. Fix the list and the whole script rises.

The 8 parts

1. Accuracy is marked everywhere, not in one question
2. The comma splice, and how to repair it
3. Agreement, tense and the words that trip them
4. Register: the same sentence, three ways wrong
5. Proofreading that actually finds errors
6. Where marks go
7. What to remember
8. Watch one worked through