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Playful Punctuation in Primary Children's Writing

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Title: Playful Punctuation in Primary Children's Writing
Language: English
Authors: Burrell, Andrew, Beard, Roger (ORCID 0000-0002-7558-1423)
Source: British Educational Research Journal. Oct 2022 48(5):896-914.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 19
Publication Date: 2022
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Writing Assignments, Punctuation, Play, Persuasive Discourse, Writing (Composition), Language Usage
DOI: 10.1002/berj.3800
ISSN: 0141-1926
1469-3518
Abstract: The writing of three attainment groups of 10- to 11-year-old children was used to investigate their use of ludic (playful) punctuation in the composition of an advertisement for a new dessert. Framed within a consideration of language play in general, and children's use of punctuation in particular, the investigation revealed the ways in which primary children use playful punctuation in order to achieve their persuasive aims. There were clear differences between the attainment groups in both the content and range of these uses. The findings suggest that such uses--like language play as a whole--warrant further attention in educational research. Children use playful punctuation in distinctive ways without being prompted to do so. Future work needs to identify the writing tasks that enable the use of playful punctuation to flourish.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2022
Accession Number: EJ1350612
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0159609996;bed01oct.22;2022Oct13.08:15;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0159609996-1">Playful punctuation in primary children's writing </title> <p>The writing of three attainment groups of 10‐ to 11‐year‐old children was used to investigate their use of ludic (playful) punctuation in the composition of an advertisement for a new dessert. Framed within a consideration of language play in general, and children's use of punctuation in particular, the investigation revealed the ways in which primary children use playful punctuation in order to achieve their persuasive aims. There were clear differences between the attainment groups in both the content and range of these uses. The findings suggest that such uses—like language play as a whole—warrant further attention in educational research. Children use playful punctuation in distinctive ways without being prompted to do so. Future work needs to identify the writing tasks that enable the use of playful punctuation to flourish.</p> <p>Keywords: advertisement writing; ludic punctuation; primary education</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-2">Key insights</hd> <p>What is the main issue that the paper addresses?</p> <p>The article addresses children's ability to use punctuation in playful, as well communicative ways, in a persuasive writing task, without being prompted to do so. It also examines the range of playful punctuation that is used and whether it varies between attainment groups.</p> <p>What are the main insights that the paper provides?</p> <p>The study revealed how playful punctuation contributes to children's persuasive writing. The variety of punctuation was testament to children's ingenuity in embellishing the text in creative ways. Future work needs to identify the writing tasks that enable the use of playful punctuation to flourish.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-3">INTRODUCTION</hd> <p>Punctuation is an integral part of written English, as it is in many written languages. The topic has been discussed at length by distinguished linguists (e.g. Crystal, 2016) and by professional writers (e.g. Truss, 2003; Waterhouse, 1994). Yet, relatively little work has been done on children's use of punctuation, despite its educational significance (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002). The main empirical work that has been done has used an ethnographic perspective (Hall, 1998, 2009). Even less work has been done on how children use punctuation in playful ways, which is the focus of the present article.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-4">Defining language play</hd> <p>Children frequently encounter language play. Despite this, the playful function of language has been a relatively neglected subject in research and scholarly publications, regardless of the positive contribution that it can make to language learning. Crystal (1998) argues that the playful function of language is important for our appreciation of language as a whole and suggests the term 'ludic linguistics' for its academic study. Crystal also suggests that language play occurs when people manipulate language as a source of fun for themselves and for others. This is often done by effectively bending and breaking the rules of the language.</p> <p>However, further consideration suggests that language play may not necessarily be 'for fun'. It may occur where a sense of fun is not evident, particularly in persuasion, argument and disputes. Nor does language play necessarily have to involve 'rule‐breaking', for instance, in puns, rhymes or alliteration. Taking account of these qualifications, a more wide‐ranging view of language play is one that recognises how linguistic features can be used to draw attention to themselves, in addition to communicating the content of oral or spoken language. In this way, an effect is achieved that would not otherwise have been present, and perhaps even consciously avoided, if the focus were only on the essential content of the written communication.</p> <p>Language play has recently received a re‐appraisal which might be deemed long overdue, given the advent of new forms of literacy, including digital and multi‐modal (Beard & Burrell, 2021). However, for the purposes of the present article, and given the definitional issues mentioned above, the long‐established work of Nilsen and Nilsen (1978, p. 28) remains particularly helpful. They define language play as 'any use of language that is creative and unusual: that has purpose beyond the mere communication of basic information'. Furthermore, while language play may be assumed to be the province of literary texts, features of ludic language can be found in many textual genres, including factual and persuasive, with language play being considered a core element of one subgenre of persuasive writing—advertising (Cook, 2000, p. 4).</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-5">What punctuation does</hd> <p>Punctuation can help us establish meaning in text and its use can vary according to the writer's style and also the type of text being written. According to the <emph>Encyclopædia Britannica</emph> (Brown, 2020), punctuation is defined as the use of spacing, conventional signs and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading, both silently and aloud, of handwritten and printed texts. Crystal (1995, p. 278), one of the world's foremost authorities on the English language, identifies the main functions of punctuation. According to Crystal, punctuation:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> allows written text to be read coherently by displaying its grammatical structure;</item> <p></p> <item> provides the reader with clues about how the written text can be read aloud;</item> <p></p> <item> highlights units of meaning;</item> <p></p> <item> adds a dimension of meaning that would be difficult or impossible to read aloud.</item> </ulist> <p>Waterhouse (1994, p. 32) argues that punctuation has two roles—a functional one (making meaning clear) and a cosmetic one (in enhancing style). Smith (1982, p. 156) argues that punctuation 'reflects the structure of meaning in written language' in that it provides a visible spatial framework marking out connected and embedded meanings in texts of different kinds.</p> <p>The purpose of punctuation has sometimes been described through the use of metaphors. Partridge, the British lexicographer, described it figuratively as 'the line along which the train (composition, style, writing) must travel if it isn't to run away with its driver' (as quoted in Truss, 2003, p. 12). Some grammarians use the analogy of stitching (in which the fabric of language is held in shape), while others use the analogy of punctuation marks being traffic signals (telling readers to slow down, stop, etc.). According to an authority on the subject, (Lukeman, 2006, p. 2), 'Punctuation is the music of language. As a conductor can influence the experience of the song by manipulating its rhythm, so can punctuation influence the reading experience, bring out the best (or worst) in a text'.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-6">Playful approaches to punctuation</hd> <p>Punctuation has also long been associated with a sense of playfulness. This may be because punctuation cannot be converted into spoken language in the way that written language can be when it is read aloud. What such a conversion might resemble has been explored by the comedian Victor Borge, who improvised different onomatopoeic sounds while reading aloud, using what he called 'phonetic punctuation' (Bradley, 2013; Nielsen Business Media, 1946). Within scholarly work, the functions of the punctuation marks have sometimes been described playfully. Lukeman (2006) describes commas as 'the speed bumps of punctuation' and of the colon being a magician (where audiences do not know what is to come). Historically, people have played around with conventional punctuation. Henry Denham, a sixteenth century English printer, invented the rhetorical question mark (see Figure 1), which takes the form of a mirrored question mark. More recently, Speckter, an American advertising executive, proposed the interrobang (Houston, 2015; see Figure 1) as a punctuation mark used to convey disbelief. This mark combines the function of a question mark (interrogative point) and an exclamation mark (known by printers as a 'bang')—hence the name interrobang.</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/BED/01oct22/berj3800-fig-0001.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNXb4kSepq84yOvqOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="berj3800-fig-0001.jpg" title="1 Some 'playful' innovations in punctuation" /> </p> <p></p> <p>However, it is not only adults who sometimes consider there a need to invent new punctuation marks. Martens and Goodman (1996, p. 38) assert that, even from a very early age, children appreciate the limitations of punctuation, which can lead them to invent their own marks (such as the 'sadlamation' mark that was invented by one child to express his sadness following the death of his pet dog).</p> <p>Even in the modern era, punctuation marks are sometimes given informal playful names (see Table A1). Hall and Sing (2011, p. 89) note how the term 'speech mark' was not a regular part of the vocabulary of the Year 3 and 4 children in their study (respectively 7–8 and 8–9 year olds). Instead, the children favoured the terms 'sixty sixes' and 'ninety nines' to designate speech marks (a mnemonic useful for learning the order of punctuation with direct speech). Furthermore, Hall and Sing found that children would sometimes invent terminology (such as 'speech comma' and 'flying comma'). It is not only children who use playful names for punctuation marks. According to Truss (2003), journalists in the newspaper media refer to the exclamation mark as a 'screamer', 'gasper' or a 'startler'; the question mark as a 'query'; and single inverted commas as 'scare quotes'. Printers, typesetters and others often (used to) refer to the exclamation mark as a 'bang'. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalise the asterisk as a 'star', which corresponds to its etymology (from Late Latin and Ancient Greek 'little star') and its resemblance to a conventional image of a star. In English, no name has secured wide use for the @ symbol although informally it is referred to by several names (see Table A1 for a selection). Its names in other countries demonstrate a playful approach, often relating to the shape of the sign. Metaphors that have been employed range from creatures (duckling, snail and worm) and their body parts (monkey's tail, elephant's trunk) to food (pickled herring, strudel).</p> <p>The exclamation mark is among several punctuation marks that have a particularly nuanced function, providing writers with the opportunity to use them in playful ways. For example, the exclamation mark can be used to indicate intensity in a range of emotions in writing (such as excitement, surprise, astonishment) as well as indicating sudden order, volume or emphasising a point. Exciting effects are created by writers of comics by playfully using several exclamation marks in a row. In other genres, including advertisement writing, they are used more sparingly.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-8">Language play in advertisement writing</hd> <p>Linguistic studies offer a distinctive contribution to the literature by identifying a range of ludic language features that may be used in advertisements (Crystal, 1995; Leech, 1966; Packard, 1981), such as vivid vocabulary, short, catchy phrases and more conversational grammar. Short phrases and sentences are often employed in advertising (for example the use of the imperative: 'Enjoy.' by Coca‐Cola). However, this is not always the case, as illustrated in the interrogative used here to create a long sentence (through the playful use of 'synathroesmus'): 'Why do you think we make Nuttall's Mintoes such a devilishly smooth cool creamy minty chewy round slow velvety fresh clean solid buttery taste?' In this example, the excessive use of multiple descriptors (adjectives) helps to engage the reader. Indeed, Crystal (1998, p. 94) suggests that language play is part of the 'essence' of advertising, as it is often used by advertisers to meet a number of demands that their work entails. These demands include arousing interest in the product and convincing the target audience that the product will satisfy some need and that a product is superior to others. The playful use of language by advertisers also helps to make their advertisements interesting and memorable (Cook, 1994).</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-9">Playful punctuation in advertisement writing</hd> <p>Advertisers also seek to capture the reader's attention by employing a range of typographical features. Such features include aspects of typeface—for example, different print sizes, fonts and styles—as well as punctuation. The following may be employed for emphasis or contrast: block capitals, bold, colour, italics or underlining. Sometimes several of these may be combined for impact. Variations in spelling (for example, 'Drinka pinta milka day'), capitalisation, hyphenation, italicisation and paragraphing may also be employed in ways which playfully bend and break the rules. Playful punctuation in advertisements is most frequently used in conventional ways, as illustrated by the majority of the examples in Table 1. However, it can also be employed in unconventional ways (for example, '!tz a Red Thing' [Tizer drink]). A further example is provided by the first example in Table 1, where asterisks are used to denote a particular letter.</p> <p>1 TABLEProfessional advertisements incorporating playful punctuation</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Advertisement</th><th align="left">Punctuation use</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>The Vegan 'Jack 'n' Ch**se' Pizza (Pizza Hut Restaurant menu)</td><td>Asterisks to indicate the omission of certain letters</td></tr><tr><td>Kelly's of Cornwall @KellysIceCream (Twitter)</td><td>Commercial @ sign for internet addresses</td></tr><tr><td>A little bottle of science (not magic) (Yakult probiotic drink)</td><td>Round brackets to slip in asides</td></tr><tr><td>HEINZ [SERIOUSLY] GOOD MAYONNAISE (Heinz mayonnaise)</td><td>Square brackets to identify added emphasis</td></tr><tr><td>The best coffee for the best YOU. (Starbucks)</td><td>Block capitals to express emphasis</td></tr><tr><td>Kids and grown‐ups love it so—the happy world of Haribo. (Haribo sweets)</td><td>Dash to connect or separate phrases or sentences</td></tr><tr><td>A cheeky chomp of chewy caramel, covered in delicious Cadbury milk chocolate—the tasty treat you can sink your teeth into! (Cadbury Chomp bar)</td><td>Dash to emphasise a point</td></tr><tr><td>Chewy and curly, wavy and wurly! A swirly ladder of golden caramel, draped in Cadbury milk chocolate—everyone's favourite twisty treat. (Cadbury Curly Wurly)</td><td>Dash to indicate an explanation or an expansion</td></tr><tr><td>Hello You... (Diet Coke, soft drink)</td><td>Ellipsis to show the trailing off of a thought</td></tr><tr><td>Have a break... Have a Kit Kat. (Nestlé Kit Kat biscuit)</td><td>Ellipsis to indicate a pause in speech</td></tr><tr><td>A joy to give, a delight to receive... (Lindt Master Chocolatier Collection)</td><td>Ellipsis to leave something to the reader's imagination</td></tr><tr><td>A little bottle of science (not magic) (Yakult probiotic drink)</td><td>Emboldening to provide very strong emphasis</td></tr><tr><td>We'd rather have a bowl of Coco Pops! (Coco Pops cereal)</td><td>Exclamation mark to exclaim or admire</td></tr><tr><td>It's the Real Thing! (Coca Cola, soft drink)</td><td>Exclamation mark to emphasise a statement</td></tr><tr><td>Tastes like awesome feels! (Doritos tortilla chips)</td><td>Exclamation mark to indicate a strong feeling of surprise, approval, etc.</td></tr><tr><td>Eat the Wagon Wheel! (Wagon Wheels biscuits)</td><td>Exclamation mark to give a command</td></tr><tr><td>A cup of Tetley and you are ready for anything! (Tetley tea)</td><td>Exclamation mark to attract attention or for drama</td></tr><tr><td>Tyrrellbly, Tyrrellbly Tasty (Tyrrells potato chips)</td><td>Italics for emphasis or contrast</td></tr><tr><td>Have you heard the latest Wispa? (Wispa chocolate bar)</td><td>Question mark to mark the end of a sentence which is a direct question</td></tr><tr><td>Hungry? Why wait? (Snickers sweets)</td><td>Question mark to mark truncated questions</td></tr><tr><td>How will you eat yours? (Cadbury creme egg)</td><td>Question mark to indicate rhetorical questions</td></tr><tr><td>Shreddie or not? (Shreddies cereal)</td><td>Question mark to show that something is uncertain</td></tr><tr><td>'Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands' (M&Ms, sweets)</td><td>Quotation marks to indicate direct speech</td></tr><tr><td>Say 'Thank You', with Cadbury Roses. (Cadbury Roses chocolates)</td><td>Quotation marks to talk about a word or phrase</td></tr><tr><td>THE TROUBLE IS THEY ALL TASTE TOO GOOD! (Kellogg's Crunchy Nut cereal)</td><td>Underlining as a form of emphasis</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Children frequently encounter forms of language play in advertising with the average American child watching an estimated 40,000 television commercials a year (APA Task Force, 2004). Moore and Lutz (2000) report on the ways in which engaging advertising can have a strong impact on children. The children they interviewed were able to recall advertisements, sing jingles, mimic characters and to relate information gleaned from the content. Advertising is only one of many genres where children will encounter the playful use of punctuation. Playful aspects of language are found in popular children's literature (Beard & Burrell, 2021; Nwokah et al., 2019; Tanto, 2008, 2015a, 2015b, 2020)—especially illustrated storybooks—often making it a distinguishing feature.</p> <p>However, the use of punctuation marks in children's books is often inconsistent from one author to another (Perera, 1993, 1996). Hall (2009) has argued that defining punctuation and its marks has become increasingly difficult. He notes how, instead of speech marks, some writers of contemporary children's books signal speech by: typestyle (bold, underlining, etc.), type size and space, or by a combination of these features. Children's joke books typically follow a question and answer format thereby using pairings of question and exclamation marks. Exclamation marks are used playfully in children's comics (particularly superhero ones), where they are routinely used instead of the full stop. Sometimes more than one exclamation mark will appear at the end of a sentence. A large exclamation mark is sometimes used above a character's head (to indicate surprise)—or similarly a question mark (to indicate confusion). Newspaper and magazine headlines are printed in large block capitals for additional emphasis. Text messaging is characterised by its distinctive graphology and has led to language play where on some occasions the punctuation marks themselves have been repurposed, as evident in the many playful examples found in a study of textisms by Albasheer and Alfaki (2016), including those in Table 2.</p> <p>2 TABLETextisms incorporating playful punctuation</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Textism</th><th align="left">English form</th><th align="left">Punctuation marks used</th><th align="left">Aspect</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Th@</td><td>That</td><td>commercial @ sign</td><td>Phonology</td></tr><tr><td>B/C</td><td>Because</td><td>slash</td><td>Phonology</td></tr><tr><td>*w*</td><td>Wink</td><td>asterisks</td><td>Semantics</td></tr><tr><td>:‐)))))))))...</td><td>Lots of smiles</td><td>colon, hyphen, brackets, full stops</td><td>Semantics</td></tr><tr><td>!:‐)...</td><td>Have an idea</td><td>exclamation mark, colon, hyphen, bracket, ditto marks</td><td>Semantics</td></tr><tr><td>?^</td><td>What's up?</td><td>question mark, caret</td><td>Semantics</td></tr><tr><td>\−/?</td><td>A cup of tea</td><td>slashes, hyphen, question mark</td><td>Semantics</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>1 <emph>Note</emph>: Table derived from Albasheer and Alfaki (2016).</p> <p>Despite children's widespread exposure to playful punctuation in a variety of genres and a recent burgeoning interest in children's writing (e.g. Beard, 2000; Beard et al., 2009; Beard & Burrell, 2010a, 2010b; Burrell & Beard, 2010; Beard et al., 2016; Burrell & Beard, 2018a, 2018b), the use of playful punctuation in children's writing has not been systematically investigated.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-10">Previous research on children's use of punctuation</hd> <p>Punctuation is one of the less studied aspects of children's written language development. Previous research (see Hall & Robinson, 1996 for a useful review) has tended to focus on how children develop their early understandings of punctuation. For example, Cordeiro et al. (1983), Cazden et al. (1985) and Cordeiro (1988) examined young children's unconventional punctuation. The first two studies involved all of the writing of a group of first graders over an entire year to examine their progress in learning to use three punctuation marks: possessive apostrophes, quotation marks and full stops (periods in US terminology). Cordeiro (1988) compared the writing done by this group with that done by a small group of third graders writing also over the course of a year.</p> <p>A study by Ferreiro and Pontecorvo (1999) aimed to understand the use of punctuation in children's early writings in connection with the organisation of the written text, with data being drawn from a larger comparative study in which written stories of <emph>Little Red Riding Hood</emph> were collected from primary school children (ranging from first to fourth grade). In a more recent study, Hall and Sing (2011) report the findings of research that examined 7‐ to 9‐year‐olds' understanding of speech marks (part of a larger study involving children aged from 7 to 11). Bryant et al. (2011) report two intervention studies that examined 9‐ to11‐year‐old children's spelling with apostrophes and understanding possession. Stuart et al. (2010) investigated 6‐ to 9‐year‐old children's ability to use contractive and possessive apostrophes.</p> <p>Previous research has tended to focus on children's understanding of the rules of punctuation rather than the current English National Curriculum focus on how children use 'punctuation to enhance effects and clarify meaning' (DfE, 2013) in their writing. Children need to be able to punctuate in ways that are appropriate to the specific kind of writing they are engaged in. This is evident when consideration is given to the aims of written discourse, as outlined in the seminal work of Kinneavy (1971). Previous research has not examined the ways in which children use punctuation to achieve different effects when writing in a specific genre. Although persuasive writing, in the form of advertisement writing, is encountered every day by children in a variety of forms outside of the school setting, to the best of our knowledge, there are no published studies that have examined children's use of punctuation in this subgenre.</p> <p>The original contribution of the present article is to extend recent work on language play by examining children's use of playful punctuation in their advertisement writing. As outlined above, the data are from a larger investigation into the development of the persuasive writing of 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds (Beard et al., 2016). In line with the standardised task that was used, the investigation took account of five constituents of writing: purpose and organisation; grammar, vocabulary and style; punctuation; spelling; and handwriting. Although aggregate attainment scores are used in selecting the pupil subsamples (see below), the present article addresses in particular the children's use of ludic punctuation in relation to the purpose and organisational features of the writing and aspects of grammar, vocabulary and style.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-11">METHOD</hd> <p>A standardised task was used to investigate the writing of an advertisement by primary school children. The task was <emph>Literacy Impact Test B</emph> (Twist & Brill, 2000). It involves writing a description for a new dessert called the <emph>Toffee Tower</emph>. The context of the writing is a café menu, where the description will accompany a picture of the dessert. Children are told in the prompt, read aloud by the teacher, that the purpose of the description is to (i) inform the reader about the contents of the dessert; and (ii) persuade the reader to try it. The task is described by the National Foundation for Educational Research as a 'persuasive description'. The task was deemed to have ecological validity in that it enabled the children to draw upon their real‐life experiences of reading and listening to advertisements. The task is complemented by an additional one, the writing of an imaginative narrative, details of which are reported elsewhere (Burrell & Beard, 2018b; Burrell & Beard, unpublished data).</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-12">Participants</hd> <p>The participants were 112 Year 5 (10‐ to 11‐year‐old) pupils (60 boys; 52 girls) from two English local authorities representing a range of socio‐economic catchments. At the time of the investigation, the five schools that were involved all followed the statutory national curriculum and the same non‐statutory guidance (additional details are provided in Beard et al., 2016).</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-13">Procedure</hd> <p>In line with the <emph>Guide</emph> for <emph>Literacy Impact Test B</emph>, the children were given 10 min to complete the task (the separate narrative writing task is allocated 30 min). The prompt makes no mention of the use of playful language or punctuation. The task was then administered a year later when the children were in Year 6.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-14">Analysis</hd> <p>The test guide provides a numeric scheme focused on the five constituents of writing, referred to above, applied to the persuasive and the narrative tasks (Twist & Brill, 2000, p. v). The scheme and its administration have been discussed in a previous publication (Beard et al., 2016). For the purposes of the investigation reported in the present article, the scheme was used to identify three attainment subgroups whose use of playful punctuation writing could be analysed in detail and comparisons made. The subgroups comprised (i) the highest‐attaining children in the Year 6 administration of the task (<emph>n</emph> = 13); (ii) the children with the lowest scores in Year 6, whose scores were also the lowest in Year 5 (<emph>n</emph> = 12); and (iii) the children whose attainment increased most between Year 5 and Year 6 (<emph>n</emph> = 13, three of whom were also in the high attainment group).</p> <p>The principal research questions were:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> What features of playful punctuation are evident in children's advertisement writing?</item> <p></p> <item> How does the use of this punctuation vary between different attainment subgroups?</item> <p></p> <item> What characterises the uses of this punctuation in the writing of (i) the highest attaining children, (ii) the lowest attaining children and (iii) the children whose attainment increased most over the 12 month period?</item> </ulist> <p>In answering the first research question, 'What features of playful punctuation are evident in children's advertisement writing?', all the anonymised scripts were re‐read by the two authors of the present paper and all forms of playful punctuation were categorised and tabulated. Only punctuation that was used by the children themselves was included in the analysis (with any missing punctuation being overlooked). As brackets and quotation marks only occur in pairs, each pairing was recorded as one occurrence, for example brackets—<emph>choclate (Dairy milk) flakes</emph>—and quotation marks—<emph>scrumptious 'toffee balls'</emph>. Children's use of capital letters (to express emphasis) was recorded as one occurrence where all the letters in a single word or consecutive words appeared in block capitals (i.e. <emph>a TOFFEE TOWER</emph>). When capitals were not used in this way, they were not included in the analysis (for example, <emph>It's The Toffee Tower</emph>). Where children used multiple exclamation marks together, each mark was recorded as an individual occurrence.</p> <p>In order to answer the second research question, concerning how the use of playful punctuation varied between different attainment subgroups, stacked bar charts were compiled from the aggregates of playful punctuation occurrences from the two administrations of the writing task and these are shown in Figure 2. According to authoritative sources, stacked bar charts are a visualisation method that is particularly useful for presenting the sums of data attributes while allowing users to see how the values of these attributes contribute to the totals (Indratmo et al., 2018; Streit & Gehlenborg, 2014).</p> <p> <img src="https://imageserver.ebscohost.com/img/embimages/rdk/BED/01oct22/berj3800-fig-0002.jpg?ephost1=dGJyMNXb4kSepq84yOvqOLCmsE6epq5Srqa4SK6WxWXS" alt="berj3800-fig-0002.jpg" title="2 Frequency and distribution of children's playful punctuation" /> </p> <p></p> <p>In order to answer the third research question, concerning the use of playful punctuation in the writing of the highest and lowest attaining children and children whose attainment increased most over the 12‐month period, further use was made of the earlier categorisations and tabulations that were undertaken to address the first research question. Differences between occurrences of playful punctuation use in Year 5 and Year 6 were analysed in relation to the attainment groups.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-16">RESULTS</hd> <p>Figure 2 summarises the frequency and distribution of the children's use of playful punctuation and reveals differences in the use of playful punctuation in the three attainment subgroups. Some punctuation marks were particularly evident, most notably the use of exclamation marks, block capitals and brackets. In contrast, the asterisk, the commercial @ sign, slash, dash, ellipsis and underlining were used most infrequently among the subgroups.</p> <p>It will be evident from Figure 2 that none of the children used the exclamation mark in conjunction with the question mark. This pairing is known as the interrobang and is written as '!?' or '?!' (and sometimes '?!?' or '!?!') in its 'deconstructed' form. However, one child (see below) used compound punctuation on a single occasion through punctuation doubling. Repeated exclamation marks were used on a few occasions. All of the punctuation featured in Figure 2 was used at least once. The results have additional interest if they are considered in conjunction with the attainment groups in which they occurred.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-17">Highest attaining group</hd> <p>The three‐part overall framework (introduction, main description and concluding appeal) that often characterises advertisement writing (Twist & Brill, 2000) was often employed by the children whose writing was assessed as being most developed. Within this organisational framework specific advertising techniques were employed that reflected a playful use of language and punctuation to achieve a particular effect.</p> <p>Rhona was one of the children whose writing was judged to be in the highest‐attaining subgroup and her Year 6 text is reproduced below. (All pupil names are pseudonyms and the examples are from Year 6 scripts unless otherwise stated.)</p> <p>The Toffee Tower is a delicious new dessert full of scrumptious 'toffee balls'. The ice‐cream is trickling with toffee, and also has a cherry on the top. There is a crunchy wafer, and 2 chocolate wafers, all covered in toffee.</p> <p>There are 3 different sizes of toffee tower which are:– Small = 50p, Medium = 75p, Large = £1.00. However, if you can't eat it all, don't worry! Our staff will provide you with a small tub for the rest of the ice‐cream if you wish. For every kid's sandwich you buy, one ice‐cream will become 50% cheaper (if it's a medium ice‐cream, it becomes 37p). You must hurry, though! The delicious Toffee Tower is only sold in the Spring and Summer, and we have a limited amount we can make. However, the more people buy, the more we'll be able to make!</p> <p>So, come along today and buy the all‐new Toffee Tower at Treats café.</p> <p>Are you going to buy it?</p> <p>Typically, her writing opens with a declarative sentence or a phrase designed to capture the reader's attention: 'The Toffee Tower is a delicious new dessert full of scrumptious 'toffee balls'.' The inclusion of quotation marks around 'toffee balls' draws attention to these words, giving them special status similar in the way that italics can pick out key words. Unusually, Rhona includes compound punctuation in the form of a dash after a colon (i.e. : —) to list the sizes of toffee tower available. Parentheses are used to clarify the cost of the medium size ice‐cream when purchased with a child's sandwich: 'For every kid's sandwich you buy, one ice‐cream will become 50% cheaper (if it's a medium ice‐cream, it becomes 37p).' The effect of using round brackets here produces a more informal and relaxed style. Her consistent persuasive appeal, maintained by features like 'You must hurry, though!... we have a limited amount', is partly achieved through the use of underlining to emphasise a certain word and also the inclusion of an exclamation mark for drama. Here, the exclamation mark is used to convey the need for the reader to act promptly in order to avoid disappointment. Rhona also uses exclamations for effect: 'the more people buy, the more we'll be able to make!' Her use of the exclamation mark here expresses enthusiasm to meet consumer demand for the product. Rhona's text ends with a clear appeal to the reader: a direct interrogative, 'Are you going to buy it?' and appropriately includes a question mark for end punctuation.</p> <p>The forms of punctuation found in Rhona's text were also evident in the texts of other children in this group. For example, within Bryony's main description of the dessert, an exclamation mark is used to add a sense of drama to a hyperbolic sentence: 'For as soon as you have one taste of it, you want more, more and more!' This is followed by the use of a parenthetical question appealing to the reader: '(Do you feel like eating this yet?)'. In her concluding appeal to the reader, Bryony uses a dash to connect phrases and create wordplay in the form of a pun telling readers what to do: 'buy it from Treats café—treat yourself!' Here, both the dash and the exclamation mark help the young writer to create a snappy and memorable summary.</p> <p>Frequent use of capitals, brackets and exclamations for effect by other children in the high attainers group included 'ask for a TOFFEE TOWER!' (Susan); 'TOFEE TOWER! AT THE TREATS CAFE TODAY!' (Theo) and 'Get yours NOW!' (Mary). A single exclamation mark was used by Elizabeth for adding emphasis to a statement: 'If that isn't enough, the cherry is suger‐coated, and the ice‐cream is extra thick!' (Year 5). Lee's instruction to readers to try the dessert is punctuated with an exclamation mark and is followed by a cautionary note written in capitals for effect: 'Try this new dessert! Warning, VERY MOREISH.' (Year 5). Carol's final concluding appeal was centre‐set on the page. Written in capital letters—the hyperbolic sentence included an exclamation mark for drama: 'THE TOFFEE TOWER IT'S THE GREATEST!' (Carol). Tony incorporated brackets into his description to add information and to illustrate via an example: 'At the top of the ice‐cream there is oozing melted toffe (that tastes delicious with vinilla ice‐cream, just a tip).' He ended his main description with another set of parentheses, but this time to clarify after he had used an asterisk: 'also, a waffer is on the * top (unfortunatly not toffe flavour)'. Bryony used a slash to separate alternatives in her description: 'when you lick it/put it in your mouth, it starts dissolving.'</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-18">Lowest attaining group</hd> <p>Children whose writing was judged to be least developed were much less likely to include playful forms of punctuation than those in the highest attaining group. However, the children in this subgroup did use punctuation, especially full stops, which were not included in the data collected for this study. The exclamation mark was used most frequently. This was true of the other two groups, with the highest attainment group using about twice as many as the lowest attaining group. The results were the same for the narrative task (Beard et al., 2016).</p> <p>Noah was one of the children whose writing was judged to be in the lowest 10% of the sample. His Year 6 text is reproduced below in order to exemplify the general characteristics of the low attaining group.</p> <p>There's a new treat at treats café it's called toffee tower it so dillishous you'll want to Have some. It got juicey ice cream with toffee its got cherrys flakes and all sorts you name it scrumdidlyumpious 10 – 10 people loved it Got cream toffee at the top and bottom and the only sell it at Treats cafe and its at the top of the menu. And if you come right now if you bye one for the arigand prise and you want another you can bye it for half prise so come to treats cafe and trie to spot the Toffee Tower.</p> <p>The only use of playful punctuation is the use of a dash. Noah used a dash to represent 'out of' rather than the more frequently used diagonal: '10 – 10 people loved it'. Despite Noah's ability to construct a persuasive description, his writing is striking in its lack of punctuation marks with the omission of commas and full stops being particularly noticeable.</p> <p>Other than the full stop, the most frequently used playful punctuation mark to be used by this group were exclamation marks. These were used to show strong feeling: 'you scream! I scream! we all scream for ice‐cream!!!' (Nathaniel). Ben used several at the end of a command: 'by it now before its gone!!!!'. While style guides generally disapprove of the use of repeated exclamation marks, they can be effective in advertisement writing. There were few examples of underlining or capital letters being used to add emphasis. However, Charlie used bold capitals ('<bold>I</bold>t's <bold>T</bold>he <bold>T</bold>offee <bold>T</bold>ower' [Year 5]) and underlining ('the toffee tower' centre‐set on the page) to emphasise the name of the dessert. Max included brackets to add information: 'this appetising dessert (limited edition only)' (Year 5). He was the only child in this subgroup to use a symbol to stand for a word: 'only sold @ treats café'.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-19">Highest gains group</hd> <p>Luke was one of the children judged to be in the 10% of the sample whose writing indicated the clearest gains. His Year 6 text is produced below in order to exemplify a general characterisation of the high gains group. A striking feature of Luke's Year 5 text is the absence of any playful punctuation. The only exception is the inclusion of an exclamation mark to attract attention: 'and where do you get all this at Treats café for just £1.55!'</p> <p>A year later in Year 6 Luke wrote:</p> <p>Try the knew 'Toffee Tower' the knew tasty desert that will get your tastebuds tingling. This desert includes: your choice of ice cream (chocolate, bannana or vanila), two choco sticks, a wafer and the most delightful toffe sauce you will ever try. Also it is all finished off with a cherry on top. However there only served at Treats café, and there selling like mad. So get down to Treats café today and try this knew 'Toffe Tower' * befor they all sell out and they have none left!</p> <p> <emph>* I'me off to get one</emph> (written as a footnote, near the bottom of the page).</p> <p>Luke's use of quotations marks around the dessert's name ('Toffee Tower') gives it special status and attracts the reader's attention to it. Brackets are used to add extra comment: 'your choice of ice cream (chocolate, bannana or vanila)'. Luke's engaging final appeal to the reader was further supported by some small print and the use of an asterisk and an exclamation mark: 'try this knew 'Toffe Tower'* befor they all sell out and they have none left!' to slip in an aside from the author: '* I'me off to get one'.</p> <p>Some forms of playful punctuation found in Luke's text were also evident in the texts of the other children in this group although they were sometimes used for other reasons. Susan used repeated exclamation marks in her title for additional emphasis along with the use of capital letters for the dessert's name to attract attention: 'TOFFEE TOWER!!!!!!'. A year earlier she used them to give a command: 'Get them before their gone! NOW!' (Year 5). Samuel also used an exclamation mark to add drama and to tell the reader what to do: 'so get them while you can!.' while other children included them as part of their concluding appeal to the reader: 'you'll love it!' (Jack) and 'So why don't you treat yourself with that wonderful desert!' (Jessica). Brackets were used to clarify: '2 or 3 choclate (Dairy milk) flakes' (Susan); 'served with wafer (optional)' (Helen) and 'your chose strawberry or chocolate sace (for on the top and bottem)' (Daisy). Quotation marks were used around the name of the dessert (as an alternative to underlining): 'so get down today, dont forget its called 'The Toffee Tower." (Daisy); 'this new ice cream called 'Toffee Tower" (Octavia).</p> <p>Some other forms of playful punctuation were found in the advertisement writing of the other children in this subgroup. Block capitals were used for impact. For example, Jack used these for the title of his description: 'TOFFEE TOWER' whereas Susan used them in her appeal to the reader: 'ask for a TOFFEE TOWER!'. Octavia combined the use of block capitals with the central alignment of text in her final tempting appeal to the reader which was arranged over five lines to create a memorable slogan: 'we will make your life SUPER DELICIOUS'. Samuel used a question mark to address the reader: 'for just 50p why don't you have a madgical toffee tower.?' (Year 5). Imran used a tag question to cue the reader into the desired response: 'with the most finest chocolat, delicous?' (Year 5). Ruby included an invented telephone number which included a dash: 'call 555 – 2983 to make a resavation'. Helen's text included some underlining for emphasis within her expanded descriptive detail: '& two scrumpcious, fudge‐centred chocolate covered flakes'. Imran was the only child in this and the other subgroups to include an ellipsis which he used in his final appeal to the reader: 'Come to the toffee tower and feel like your at home... Yes!' (Year 5).</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-20">DISCUSSION</hd> <p>In relation to the first research question, 'What features of playful punctuation are evident in children's advertisement writing?', it was evident that children from all three subgroups incorporated some playful forms of punctuation into their advertisement writing. This punctuation ranged from those frequently found in professional advertisements (such as exclamation and question marks) to those less commonly used (such as the asterisk and @ sign). The range of punctuation that was used increased reader engagement and appeal while maintaining the persuasive purpose of the writing.</p> <p>In relation to the other research questions, 'How does the use of this punctuation vary (i) between different attainment subgroups and (ii) over a 12 month period?', the exclamation mark was the most frequently used by all subgroups—but with twice as many being used by the high attainment group than the lowest. The use of brackets was particularly evident in the highest attainment group, whereas block capitals were used in both the highest attainment and high gains groups. Quotation marks were used both by the highest attainment and high gains groups—but not by the lowest attaining group. The highest attaining group used more than twice as many question marks than the high gains group, whereas the lowest attainment group did not include any. The asterisk, the commercial @ sign, slash, dash, ellipsis and underlining were used most infrequently among the subgroups. The ellipsis was used only once even though, according to Todd (1995, p. 71), it is often used in advertising to leave something to the reader's imagination.</p> <p>The highest attaining group produced longer descriptions that included more frequent use of punctuation (mean length 99 words in Year 5 and 122 words in Year 6). Children in this group successfully incorporated playful punctuation within the three‐part framework whilst also demonstrating a lively, animated and confident style. For example, punctuation was chosen for strong persuasive effect by Lata who wrote: 'Do you crave for large toffee filled desserts? Does it make your mouth water for large ice‐creams filled with all your favourite things?' In this group, the children's writing was characterised by an awareness of the effect the children needed to achieve on the reader. For example, Rhona combined the use of underlining and an exclamation mark for persuasive impact: 'You must hurry, though!'</p> <p>The children in the lowest attainment group produced shorter texts (mean length 61 words in Year 5 and 66 words in Year 6) with a slightly narrower range of playful punctuation. None of the children in this subgroup included question marks or quotation marks. However, one child did include the commercial @ sign, which was not evident in the writing of the other subgroups. The children in the lowest attaining subgroup produced shorter descriptions than either of the other two subgroups. Children in this group were less successful in using punctuation for playful purposes.</p> <p>In contrast, children in the high gains subgroup chose punctuation more appropriately for persuasive effect. They also produced longer texts (mean length 83 words in Year 5 and 99 words in Year 6) than the lowest attainment group. Moreover, they also used almost twice the amount of playful punctuation compared with the lowest attainment group.</p> <p>As was stated earlier, the children's use of playful punctuation was unprompted. This makes the results of the study particularly interesting: various questions arise from a close scrutiny of the findings. For example, why do children turn to some types of ludic punctuation and not others?</p> <p>In considering this question, consideration of genre is important. In tackling an advertisement, the children seemed to sense that conventional uses of language might be sometimes modified to create a certain effect, for example, the use of multiple exclamation marks to add even more emphasis. Multiple exclamation marks were far more in evidence in the persuasive task than in the narrative, which is being reported separately (Burrell & Beard, unpublished data). In contrast, the interrobang featured in the children's narrative writing on four occasions (three times in the high attainment group and once in the height gains group), but not at all in the persuasive writing.</p> <p>Looking across all three subgroups, there were relatively few examples of the asterisk, commercial @ sign, slash, dash, ellipsis and underlining for effect. Future investigations might focus on the functions of these marks, including when and why they are used by children. In the present study, the asterisk was used as follows:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> to refer to a footnote at the bottom of the advertisement—'* befor they all sell out and they have none left!' '* I'me off to get one' (Luke);</item> <p></p> <item> to draw attention to additional information in brackets—'(also, a waffer is on the * top (unfortunatly not toffe flavour)' (Tony).</item> </ulist> <p>The @ sign was used:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> to emphasise the dessert's exclusive availability—'only sold @ treats café' (Max).</item> </ulist> <p>The slash was used:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> to add information—' <emph>when you lick it/put it in your mouth, it starts dissolving</emph>.' (Bryony). [The child did not leave spaces either side of the slash sign.]</item> </ulist> <p>The dash was used:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> to add information—'different flavoured ice cream scoops—like all the colours of the rainbow,' (Bryony);</item> <p></p> <item> to represent 'out of' (rather than the more frequently used diagonal)—'10 – 10 people loved it' (Noah);</item> <p></p> <item> to separate two sets of numbers in a made‐up telephone number—'call 555 – 2983 to make a resavation' (Ruby);</item> <p></p> <item> to indicate a dramatic pause—'If you'd like this, then buy it from Treats café—treat yourself!' (Bryony).</item> </ulist> <p>The ellipsis was used:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> to show a trail off into silence—'Come to the toffee tower and feel like your at home...' (Imran, Year 5).</item> </ulist> <p>Underlining was used:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> as an additional form of emphasis—'You must hurry, though!... we have a limited amount' (Rhona).</item> </ulist> <p>In contrast, some forms of punctuation or typographical features frequently used in commercial advertisements were not used by any of the children.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> None of the children included bullet points, despite their widespread use (as in the present article) to introduce items in an unnumbered list. The bullet symbol can take on a variety of shapes and is sometimes used playfully by adopting alternative shapes to add visual interest. However, it needs to be noted that a few children did organise their writing in a list‐like arrangement.</item> <p></p> <item> Neither did the hash feature in the children's writing. In social media, such as Twitter, the hashtag has become a convention for tagging words, which have in turn become known as 'hashtags'. These are now commonly used in advertising (for example, #FreezeTheJoy [Cadbury Dairy Milk Ice Cream]). Children may have simply avoided some forms of punctuation in the belief that it would not meet 'teacher approval' or seen the hash as part of a keyboard, rather than handwritten, repertoire.</item> </ulist> <p>Absences of other punctuation marks may be explained by historical reasons. It was once common in British English for a colon to be followed by a hyphen or dash. Crystal (1995, p. 282) draws attention to such archaisms in older printing styles. However, the use of compound punctuation seems now to be discouraged, so it is surprising that one child (Rhona, see above) included a colon dash (: —), or 'colash' as it was sometimes known, in her persuasive description. This is one of several paired forms of punctuation that are now rendered as redundant (Baker, 1997; Crystal, 1995; Houston, 2015). The others are the semicolon dash (; —), comma dash (, —) and point dash (. —).</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-21">CONCLUSION</hd> <p>Findings from this study indicate that 10‐ to 11‐year‐old children find advertisement writing accessible, in terms of the creative and playful opportunities that it offers. It is highly likely that an alternative task (or even the one reported above) would have resulted in an even more playful use of punctuation if it were to be completed under normal classroom conditions. Additionally, the use of a word processor might have encouraged further playful punctuation by the children through the use of underlining, italics or other typographical features.</p> <p>This was an exploratory study that had a number of limitations. These include the relatively small sample, the arbitrary and limited nature of the task and the lack of choice in the task that the children were asked to complete. While these limitations seem likely to be inherent in repeat‐design studies of this kind, it is possible that at least some of the children would have written more expansively if they had had greater choice and more time. However, the task itself did not require the children to write at length and it is possible that this attribute of advertising writing might have been an appealing and motivating quality for the children.</p> <p>In addition, working within a single genre provided a transparent and engaging context for examining what children's ludic punctuation did in informing the reader, rather than concentrating on rules or rituals. This is in line with the implications of previous work on children's punctuation by Hall and Robinson (1996). The implications of the present study are also in line with Crystal's (2016, p. 355) more recent suggestion that studies of children's use of written language need to bear in mind the importance of finding genres that are motivating for pupils. He argues that 'we need to select the punctuation options that operate within an <emph>individual</emph> genre, so that students can see how the system is put to work'. The findings from the present study illustrate the usefulness of this approach of working within single genres by demonstrating how children can use punctuation in a playful way in their own persuasive descriptions.</p> <p>Overall, it might be deemed unsurprising that those with the mostly highly developed writing skills would have the most use of ludic punctuation. However, it is important to note that, although punctuation formed part of the assessment criteria for the standardised task, these criteria focused on the accurate use of punctuation, particularly punctuation use within the sentence and the use of inverted commas. The findings are instead a testament to children's ingenuity in using punctuation in creative and imaginative ways to embellish their writing in a genre that was relatively new to them. These findings are all the more notable in the light of the fact that the children were not prompted to use punctuation in this way. Playful punctuation is an under‐researched aspect of children's writing development. Future work needs to identify the writing tasks that enable the use of playful punctuation to flourish.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-22">ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS</hd> <p>The authors would like to thank Bronwen Swinnerton and Matt Homer for their work at earlier stages of the study and the children and teachers who participated.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-23">CONFLICTS OF INTEREST</hd> <p>The authors declare none.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-24">ETHICAL STATEMENT</hd> <p>We confirm that the research presented in this article was carried out with due consideration to all relevant ethical issues and in line with BERA's Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research.</p> <hd id="AN0159609996-25">DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT</hd> <p>All original scripts have been anonymised and archived.</p> <p>A APPENDIX</p> <p>TABLE Informal playful names for commonly used punctuation marks</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Mark</th><th align="left">Conventional name(s)</th><th align="left">Playful name(s)</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>*</td><td>Asterisk</td><td>star, splat, bug</td></tr><tr><td>@</td><td>Commercial at sign</td><td>ape, cabbage, cat, cyclone, rose, snail, strudel, vortex, whirlpool, whorl</td></tr><tr><td>< ></td><td>Angle brackets</td><td>chevrons, pointy brackets</td></tr><tr><td>{}</td><td>Brace brackets</td><td>curly brackets, hitchcocks</td></tr><tr><td>()</td><td>Round brackets</td><td>ears, fingernails; left banana (opening bracket), right banana (closing bracket)</td></tr><tr><td>[]</td><td>Square brackets</td><td>box</td></tr><tr><td>ABC</td><td>Capitalisation</td><td>big a, big b, big c</td></tr><tr><td>:</td><td>Colon</td><td>two‐spot, double dot</td></tr><tr><td>,</td><td>Comma</td><td>tail</td></tr><tr><td>...</td><td>Ellipsis</td><td>dot‐dot‐dot</td></tr><tr><td>!</td><td>Exclamation mark</td><td>bang, screamer, gasper, startler</td></tr><tr><td /><td>Full stop</td><td>dot, spot</td></tr><tr><td>#</td><td>Hash</td><td>sharp, crosshatch, (garden) fence, (garden) gate, grid</td></tr><tr><td>‐</td><td>Hyphen</td><td>worm</td></tr><tr><td>?</td><td>Question mark</td><td>a query, whatmark</td></tr><tr><td>'' or</td><td>Single quotation marks</td><td>scare quotes</td></tr><tr><td>""</td><td>Double quotation marks</td><td>sixty‐sixes and ninety‐nines, rabbit ears</td></tr><tr><td>/</td><td>Forward slash</td><td>diagonal, whack</td></tr><tr><td>\</td><td>Back slash</td><td>back‐whack, slosh</td></tr><tr><td>~</td><td>Tilde</td><td>twiddle, squiggle, wave</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>2 <emph>Note</emph>: Table derived from: Codejacked ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref1">17</reflink>]); Hall and Sing ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref2">30</reflink>]); Pronunciation guide for UNIX ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref3">44</reflink>]); Truss ([<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref4">54</reflink>]).</p> <ref id="AN0159609996-26"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Funding information The parent study was funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, RES‐000‐22‐1050.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0159609996-27"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibtext> Albasheer, N. 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  Data: Playful Punctuation in Primary Children's Writing
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Burrell%2C+Andrew%22">Burrell, Andrew</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Beard%2C+Roger%22">Beard, Roger</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7558-1423">0000-0002-7558-1423</externalLink>)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22British+Educational+Research+Journal%22"><i>British Educational Research Journal</i></searchLink>. Oct 2022 48(5):896-914.
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  Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
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– Name: Pages
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  Data: 19
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  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2022
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
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  Label: Education Level
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink>
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  Label: Descriptors
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+School+Students%22">Elementary School Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Writing+Assignments%22">Writing Assignments</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Punctuation%22">Punctuation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Play%22">Play</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Persuasive+Discourse%22">Persuasive Discourse</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Writing+%28Composition%29%22">Writing (Composition)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Language+Usage%22">Language Usage</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1002/berj.3800
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  Data: 0141-1926<br />1469-3518
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: The writing of three attainment groups of 10- to 11-year-old children was used to investigate their use of ludic (playful) punctuation in the composition of an advertisement for a new dessert. Framed within a consideration of language play in general, and children's use of punctuation in particular, the investigation revealed the ways in which primary children use playful punctuation in order to achieve their persuasive aims. There were clear differences between the attainment groups in both the content and range of these uses. The findings suggest that such uses--like language play as a whole--warrant further attention in educational research. Children use playful punctuation in distinctive ways without being prompted to do so. Future work needs to identify the writing tasks that enable the use of playful punctuation to flourish.
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        PageCount: 19
        StartPage: 896
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        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing Assignments
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      – SubjectFull: Punctuation
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      – TitleFull: Playful Punctuation in Primary Children's Writing
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