11 Plus Exams Forum

bigheadtodd wrote:Hi,
I have a couple of questions re: punctuation. This part of the test is a recipe for a chocolate cake, each of the sentences is split into sections, and the students are supposed to identify the section with the mistake (or if no mistakes, mark 'N')

DD's answer as follows (underlined) -
Q36. We know it's hard to believe, but the secret is mayonnaise a sort of mild, creamy <-- missing a "("
Q37. salad dressing)! Give it a try and we guarantee it won't be <-- DD says exclamation mark should be within brackets. Correct answer is [N]o mistakes.

The exclamation mark refers to the rather surprising ingredient, mayonnaise - the bit in the brackets explains what mayonnaise is, for the uninitiated, but the sentence would stand without it.

Q40. tin and bake on the middle shelf for about an hour at 180 degrees (Gas mark 4.) <--- DD says it's missing a comma before the "at" but I told her it was probably because Gas should not have a capital "G." I noticed here that the full stop is inside the brackets.

The error is the full stop inside the brackets. Again, the bit in the brackets is just stating the temperature in a different format, but could have been left out.

So,
1. If such questions are missing a comma between two sections of a sentence, which section of the sentence is the appropriate one to mark? My gut says it's the one with the comma at the end (simply because of the way we leave a space after a comma) but I'm not 100% sure.

Like you, not sure officially, but common sense would tend to dictate this, I think.

2. When using brackets, does punctuation go inside the brackets or outside? Or does it vary based on what kind of punctuation it is?

The general rule is that punctuation goes outside, as in the examples above. However, any punctuation which belongs exclusively to what is said in the brackets would go inside.

Slightly long-winded post