Basic punctuation - how good are you really?

[lorenzo.V]

16/20...had trouble with the occasional ! mark, I think...

[Thani-B]

The bad thing about this test is that it doesn't tell which one(s) were wrong, and so you can't learn from it.

Yeah, damn annoying when you are trying to use it to study for a test.

I reckon there's an argument that commas are sometimes stylistic. (Or is that sour grapes??)

My lecturer thinks that commas are going to die out soon (well in the not too distant future). Most of the time you don't really need to use them.

I disagree with my score. I believe that they have a dislike of the Oxford comma, which I feel is a completely childish stance to take.

So done it again and got 20/20 yet?

I did my test this morning, will find out if I passed or failed Friday arvo. Thankfully we get two more chances if we didn't get the 16 needed.

[Dare]

13/20 on first try, god damn some of those are hard. Particularly those wierd ! ones.

[jono035]

Sweet 19/20. It should really tell you, what the incorrect ones are its' bugging me now!

[blackdog]

Sweet 19/20. It should really tell you, what the incorrect ones are its' bugging me now!

so was it 19/20?

[jono035]

so was it 19/20?

I guess I should have made the ironically poor grammar more obvious...

[blackdog]

I guess I should have made the ironically poor grammar more obvious...

lol yea sure...

[Cayman911]

12/20 wooooo!

Yeah, someone got lower than me!

[Hitcher]

I've had a go. If this is what is being taught by "academics" as correct usage of punctuation they should be dragged off and shot. Excessive and unnecessary usage of commas, particularly of the "Oxford" comma is pedantically incorrect. Similarly for the shriek. The semi colon has become something of an anachronism too, unless used in lists.

I got 17 first time up and spent a considerable amount of time determining which ones I got "wrong". Fascination has subsequently turned to crankiness.

[vindy500]

2/4 lost interest

[Hitcher]

What was particularly irritating was the belief that one example of the four or so given was "correct". Indeed in several cases the "correct" answer was in fact the least incorrect.

Any sentence that contains more than two commas can invariably be rewritten to remove at least two of them.

[Real_Wolf]

What was particularly irritating was the belief that one example of the four or so given was "correct". Indeed in several cases the "correct" answer was in fact the least incorrect.

Any sentence that contains more than two commas can invariably be rewritten to remove at least two of them.

Gotta agree there, a couple of the ones I did had multiple meanings depending on the punctuation, such as some of the commands which could be interpreted merely as statements.

Randomly remembered a quote about how commas are important though:

Remember to use punctuation in your messages. Otherwise when you say "F-ing aye, dude", it becomes "F-ing a dude", and I doubt you wish to do that

[blackdog]

Fascination has subsequently turned to crankiness.

thankfully, it wasn't just me after all. i was a little worried that my standards were slipping

[Slyer]

Capitalisation is the difference betwen "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse" and "I helped my uncle jack off a horse".

[blackdog]

Capitalisation is the difference betwen "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse" and "I helped my uncle jack off a horse".

my left hand is in a cast. capital letters will return to my posts as feeling returns to my fingers