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Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and the Holidays

Stuart Butler

24th July 2005

Our editorial policy on the above is, we confess, inconsistent. Our checking of contributor’s text depends upon a number of contradictory factors:
1. Who is doing the checking.
2. How much time s/he has.
3. Whether s/he is bound and Trussed by concerns for traditional correctitude or whether s/he is in a more relaxed and relativist vox populi frame of mind.
4. The impossibility of satisfying multiple audiences – ironists, politicos, one club devotees, school kids, teachers, etc, etc. We usually try to have the concerns of schools as paramount – but see points 1, 2 and 3 above. Now, most of the editors will be off on holiday shortly and I, for one, may not have computer access in the Pyrenees; so please be even more tolerant over the coming month.
I will be putting together a teacher’s pack of poems and lesson plans during the summer and I know that I will face a dilemma. Do I correct grammatical errors or do I write questions to help students spot the mistakes? I prefer the latter, not least because not only will this help students develop basic tools of literacy, but also because it will help stimulate discussions about the changing nature of language. The pack will be based upon Brockworth students’ Kick It Out poems and will be designed, marketed and produced by students ready for Kick It Out and Black History Month in October. Have a good summer and see you later. We have to dash to Swindon now for a wet Sunday with my mother and brother and sister at my mum’s care home placement.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/news/2005/07/24/spelling-punctuation-grammar-and-the-holidays/