From Amazon.com
English punctuation isn't exactly a likely subject for a lively video, but of course that doesn't stop the Standard Deviants. In this production the cast of exuberant young entertainers brings its distinctive shtick--consisting of good graphics, bad jokes, and bizarre examples--to some of the less luminous stars of the punctuation galaxy. The tape begins by illuminating the differences between dashes and hyphens and the rules for using each, and there are plenty of mnemonic devices offered to help students keep things straight in their memory. The cast proceeds to present the rules of usage for apostrophes (including lots of examples of constructing contractions and plurals), parentheses, quotation marks, brackets, slashes, and ellipses. This may not sound terribly exciting, but the Standard Deviants valiantly plow away. Their unorthodox approach ultimately pays off. The oddball examples offered along with glitzy computer graphics do make the many lessons memorable. Students who are struggling to master punctuation, as well as those who feel they need a periodic review of punctuation rules, would find this a helpful way to file away the rules one needs to write correctly.
--Robert J. McNamara
Video Details
Continue the adventure with The Untamed World of English Punctuation, Part 2. This follow-up to Part 1 will guide you through some of the trickier forms of punctuation, including hyphens, apostrophes, and quotation marks, giving you a better understanding of how to use them correctly. By the end of the video, you'll have all the tools you need to soothe the savage punctuation beast. Includes such topics as: apostrophes, hyphens, parentheses, quotation marks, single quotation marks, brackets, slashes, ellipses, compound word formation, writing lists, writing fractions and numbers, contractions
