Applied Scholastics International • 11755 Riverview Drive • Saint Louis, Missouri 63138 • 877-75LEARN • www. A p p l i e d S c h o l a s t i c s . o r gApplied Scholastics International • 11755 Riverview Drive • Saint Louis, Missouri 63138 • 877-75LEARN • www. A p p l i e d S c h o l a s t i c s . o r g

Randomized Controlled Trial of Keyword Learning

With Elementary and SecondaryStudents in Zimbabwe:

Immediate Effect on Punctuation Ability

Compiled from Data Provided by Associates in Zimbabwe

By Mary J. Duda B.S., M.Ed., Ph.D. Research Specialist For Applied Scholastics International

St. Louis, MissouriJuly, 2006

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ABSTRACTCitations:

Baker, S.K.; Simmons, D.C.;Kame’enui, E.G., (1995).Vocabulary acquisition: Synthesisof the research (Technical ReportNo. 13). Eugene, OR: NationalCenter to Improve the Tools ofEducators, Retrieved October 30,2002. Web site: http://idea.uore-gon.edu/cite/documents/techrep/tech134.html

Basic Study Manual Based onthe Works of L. Ron Hubbard.(1992). St. Louis, MO: EffectiveEducation Publishing.

English Grammar GlossaryBased on the Works of L. RonHubbard. (2004). St. Louis, MO:Effective Education Publishing.

How a Small Rural SchoolDistrict Reduced the AchievementGap with Study Technology.Applied Scholastics International,St. Louis, Missouri, 2004.

Increasing Language ArtsAchievement for Tenth GradeStudents in an UnderperformingTitle I School. Applied ScholasticsInternational, St. Louis, Missouri,2006.

Background: “KeywordLearning” is a method of the edu-cational pedagogy known as“Study Technology”. It has beenused successfully in the AppliedScholastics™ network to increasestudent performance in schoolsubjects. Two recent impact stud-ies of Keyword Learning involvedunderachieving, economically dis-advantaged fifth through tenthgrade students in both urban andrural schools in the southernUnited States. While both inter-ventions were associated with sub-stantial increase in academicachievement, neither studyemployed a randomized controlgroup.

Purpose: The purpose of thecurrent report is to present impact

analysis of Keyword Learning withdata collected in a randomizedcontrolled trial in Zimbabwe withschool students of ages similar tothose in the earlier studies.

Setting: Four rural and urbanschools in the Midlands Provinceof Zimbabwe in November 2004.

Study Sample: One hundred andtwenty-four students wereinvolved, sixty-two as experimen-tal students and sixty-two as con-trols. Seventy-six were elementaryage and forty-eight were in highschools. The students were almostequally divided between rural andurban locales.

Intervention: Working both indi-vidually and in pairs for thirtyminutes, experimental studentslearned the definitions of wordsassociated with English punctua-tion. The list of words to belearned during the interventioncontained only those that hadalready been encountered duringclassroom instruction.

Research Design: Randomizedcontrolled study in which studentsin four classrooms were randomlyassigned to the experimental groupor the control group for four iden-tical trials.

Control Condition: Control stu-dents were kept apart from experi-mental students in a separateroom during the intervention.They received the interventionafter the post-test.

Data Collection and Analysis: Apre-test of punctuation ability wasadministered to experimental andcontrol groups just prior to theintervention and again immediate-ly afterward. The test was con-structed by the project directorand included only material alreadypresented in the four classrooms.The test required students to applythe rules of punctuation. Changesin performance from the pre-testto the post-test were compared forthe experimental and control

groups and for subgroups based onschool locale (rural or urban) andages of students (elementary levelor high school level).

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSESIn his educational writings, educa-tor and humanitarian, L. RonHubbard emphasized the impor-tance of vocabulary knowledge inthe learning process. Of the threemain barriers that prevent a stu-dent from comprehending what hestudies, the misunderstood word issaid to be the most virulent in itseffects (Basic Study Manual,1992). A key point is that it is themisunderstood word that estab-lishes lack of aptitude in a subject.

The misunderstood word pre-cedes the student’s inability to actor perform in a subject and caneventually cause the student togive up a subject altogether.Conversely, if the student’s misun-derstood words in a subject arefound and cleared up, resurgenceof interest and ability in a subjectwill ensue. The conceptual under-standing of words is a cornerstoneof “Study Technology,” the educa-tional pedagogy developed by Mr.Hubbard.

While misunderstood words canappear in any sphere of study orlife in general, Mr. Hubbard calledspecial attention to the depend-ence of ability in any particularfield of knowledge or action uponthe specific nomenclature of thatfield. A person who is seen as“lazy,” “slow,” “sloppy,” “careless,”“or a troublemaker” may simplybe suffering from lack of knowl-edge of the specialized vocabularyof the activity (English GrammarGlossary, 2004). Other educatorsas well have called for an emphasison vocabulary development,including instruction in the spe-cialized vocabulary of academic

content areas (Baker, Simmonsand Kame’enui, 1995).

In the practice of StudyTechnology many techniques areemployed to help students preventor overcome the effects of misun-derstood words. One of these tech-niques is Keyword Learning, inwhich the student is assisted inunderstanding the nomenclatureassociated with a particular activi-ty or subject of study. The processis concentrated on removing anybarriers to understanding, themain one being misunderstoodwords (such as even might appearin the definition of another word)and applying word meaning inways that develop conceptualunderstanding. Specific protocolsare followed to achieve these pur-poses. While often used as a tool inremediation of academic deficien-cies of students, the technique isapplicable whenever an improve-ment in performance is desired.

An impact study of KeywordLearning was conducted in the2003-2004 school year with twohundred and twenty seven severe-ly underperforming students ingrades five through eight in animpoverished African-Americanfarming community in Mississippi.Students received fifteen hours ofsmall group Keyword Learning inMathematics and Language Arts,spread out over the entire schoolyear. The intervention resulted insubstantial increase in relativeachievement from one school yearto the next, as determined bycomparison each year with theperformance of statewide cohortson the proprietary state achieve-ment test. The achievement gapwas reduced in 2004 by as little as10.5% in eighth grade math and asmuch as 53% in sixth grade mathand 34.6% in eighth grade languagearts.

In the 2004-2005 school year astudy of Keyword Learning was

conducted in an urban Title I highschool with 225 tenth gradeEnglish students. In small groupsof 4-5 students twice per weekbetween February and April, thestudents were tutored in the ter-minology of language arts study.Due to scheduling problems, oneclass of English students was notincluded in the intervention. Thisgroup of 40 students served as acomparison group. On the annualstatewide achievement test fortenth grade English in Spring 2005the tutored students substantiallyoutperformed the control students,with a much higher percentage ofstudents scoring in advanced andproficient categories (84% com-pared to 30%). On a state analysisof school effect, the tenth gradeEnglish category jumped from27th percentile in 2004 to 75thpercentile in 2005.

The current trial seeks to testthe proposition that learning theterminology of English punctua-tion will improve the ability of students to apply the rules ofEnglish punctuation and result inincreased performance on a test ofpunctuation ability.

Myriads of students in theUnited States and around theworld fail to achieve academicstandards and there is muchagreement on the need to find andvalidate practices that increase theimpact of schooling. KeywordLearning is a simple techniquebased on the accepted truth thatlearning is a language- based activ-ity. The technique has beendemonstrated to produce resultswith underachieving and economi-cally disadvantaged students andcan be implemented in a variety offormats (e.g., one-on-one tutoring,group instruction, cooperativelearning, etc.) with a minimum ofpreparation or expertise. Thepotential of this simple techniqueto improve performance for all stu-

dents, and not only in academicareas, but in other spheres ofactivity as well, should be of inter-est to educators and policymakers.

METHODSThe SettingThe study took place in November2004 in four schools in theMidlands Province of Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe, (formerly known asRhodesia) is situated in south,central Africa. It has an estimatedpopulation of 12 million, and issimilar in size to the state ofCalifornia. The country is rich innatural resources and has well-developed mining, manufacturingand agricultural industries. AcrossZimbabwe, large numbers of peo-ple (approximately 70% of the pop-ulation), live in small rural com-munities, growing their own food,following their traditional ways oflife, aimed primarily at self-suffi-ciency. In these scattered commu-nities, all members of the family,both young and old, work together,carrying out their customary roles.Family life is stable. It is very safefor children to wander freely overlarge distances. Even families liv-ing in urban areas, where there istransport and electricity and thusaccess to other (Western) influ-ences, still adhere closely to thetraditional ways of life in ruralAfrica and uphold its value.

Most schools in Zimbabwe arefunded and run by groups such aschurches, trusts, companies andquasi-governmental local units.Only about eight percent ofschools are governmental but mostschools receive some form of gov-ernmental subsidy. Schools are notfree, but in most communitiesthere are private or governmentfunds for tuition assistance tothose who cannot afford to pay. Inboth urban and rural communitiesalike, there is a great respect forthe schooling and advancement of

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the young. Hence the focus of gov-ernment has been on access andexpansion in education and sinceIndependence in 1980, greatstrides have been made in thatdirection.

The SampleIn Zimbabwe there is considerablevariability in the size of both ruraland urban schools, which range inenrollment from three hundredstudents to one thousand. Urbanschools tend to have the largerenrollments. In all schools thepupil-teacher ratio is kept constantat 40 students per teacher. Schoolsare organized on two levels.Primary schooling is for childrenfrom six years to thirteen years ofage approximately, similar toAmerican elementary schools.Secondary schooling starts at thir-teen to fourteen years of age andlasts for four years. Some schoolshave been upgraded to cover sixyears of education and these arecalled High Schools. Another vari-able that differentiatesZimbabwean schools is type oflocale (i.e., rural vs. urban).

For this trial the participatingschools were chosen by theZimbabwean project director torepresent variables more or lessequally, rather than to achieve across section of the school popula-tion. Thus, two of the participatingschools are in urban areas and twoin rural areas, though in actualitythere are many more rural stu-dents than urban in Zimbabwe.Likewise, two of the participatingschools are elementary schools(known as primary schools inZimbabwe) and two are highschools, though in actuality thereare many more elementary schoolstudents than high school stu-dents. Sizes of the four schoolsrange from medium to large enroll-ment of 513 (Shurugwi HighSchool), 650 ( Vungwi Primary),

865 (Bata Primary) and 922(Tongogara High School).

Another factor in the choice ofschools was the anticipated degreeof cooperative support for carryingout the trial. The project directorhad established working relation-ships with the four schools in priorStudy Technology interventions.However, participation of theschools was voluntary and at thediscretion of the Head (i.e., principal).

The age levels of participantswas determined in advance inorder to provide two distinct agegroups for the trial. Choice of aspecific classroom in each schoolwas left up to the Head and wasactually determined by availability,as some classes had already fin-ished end-of-year tests and dis-banded. Students in the two ele-mentary schools were approxi-mately 11 years 6 months old andstudents in the two high schoolswere in the range of 15 to 16years. There were more girls thanboys in the sample, 54% girls and46% boys, but no consistent pat-tern. For example, two of the fourclassrooms had more girls thanboys, one had more boys than girlsand one had the exact same num-ber of boys and girls. Altogether,one hundred and twenty-four stu-dents participated, sixty in ruralschools and sixty-four in urbanschools. Seventy-six were elemen-tary students and forty-eight werein high schools.

Prior to the interventions – thetrial was conducted in four identi-cal interventions – students in thefour chosen classrooms were ran-domly assigned to experimentaland control groups, resulting in atotal of 62 students in each group.All of the students, both experi-mental and control had receivedthe same prior instruction inEnglish punctuation.

On the pre-test, experimental

and control students scored virtu-ally the same on the average (seetable on page 11). The main singleexception occurred in TongogaraHigh School where control stu-dents scored 11.7% higher on thepre-test than experimental stu-dents. Experimental and controlstudents in the two urban schoolsscored 22.2% higher on the pre-test than experimental and controlstudents in the two rural schoolsand experimental and control stu-dents in the high schools scored10.8% higher than experimentaland control students in the ele-mentary schools.

Zimbabwe boasts a high literacyrate (91% literacy in 2003).Students are bi-lingual. English isspoken quite fluently and aftertheir first year of school, studentsreceive instruction entirely inEnglish.

Pre-and Post-Testing, RandomAssignment and The InterventionThe associate in Zimbabwe, previ-ously trained by AppliedScholastics, was appointed to con-duct a trial of Keyword Learning,including selection of participatingschools, selecting a subject area tobe tutored, construction of a keyword glossary to be used in thetrial, construction of an instru-ment to serve as pre- and post-test, random assignment of stu-dents to experimental and controlgroups, pre- and post-testing ofstudents and conduct of the inter-vention.

Once the participants were iden-tified, preparation for the trial con-sisted of selecting the subject andpreparing a glossary to be used bythe students during the interven-tion. The subject of English punc-tuation was chosen because it isconsidered an essential basic inZimbabwe education and becausestudent outcomes could be objec-tively assessed. From a glossary of

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English grammar terminology pub-lished by Applied Scholastics,punctuation words were selectedthat had been encountered by thestudents in earlier classroominstruction (but not actuallydefined during that process).Eleven words were identified foruse in the trial. The words werearranged to form a smoothsequence and compiled into a one-page glossary of punctuation wordsand their definitions. The defini-tions of those words were reviewedby the project director to identifyany words in the definitions thatmight be misunderstood and anysuch words were defined orally forthe students during the exercise. Acopy of the glossary is shown inExhibit A.

The trial was carried out over athree-day period. However, in eachclassroom the actions were com-pleted all on the same day. Testing,random assignment and interven-tion were carried out seamlessly inthe following manner:

(1) The project directorannounced a punctuation testand gave each student a blankpiece of paper and a copy of thepunctuation test containingthirteen unpunctuated sen-tences (see Exhibit A).

(2) Students copied the sentenceson to the blank paper, addingpunctuation as appropriate. Thetime allowed was 15 minutesand all students finished.

(3) The students were then divid-ed into two groups according totheir seating (in the standardZimbabwean classroom students

are seated two to a table in rowsof tables). For example, in East-or West-facing rooms studentsseated on the north side of thetable were sent to one corner ofthe room and students seatedon the south side of the tablewere sent to another corner ofthe room. One child came fromeach group to participate in acoin toss on behalf of the oth-ers, with the winning groupbecoming the experimentalgroup and the remaining groupserving as the control group.

(4) The control group wasinstructed to hand over theiranswer sheet to the front of theroom as they exited to anotherclassroom nearby. They wereinstructed not to discuss thepunctuation test while out ofthe room for the next 35-40minutes and were seen to com-ply with this instruction. Theanswer sheets were marked todesignate them as control grouppre-tests.

(5) The experimental group wasinstructed to hand over theiranswer sheets to the back of theroom. Answer sheets weremarked to designate them asexperimental group pre-tests.

(6) The experimental group mem-bers were then instructed toreturn to their seats and pair upfor the exercise that was aboutto begin.

(7) Each student was given a copyof the punctuation glossary.

(8) Students were instructed tostudy the glossary individuallyand then work with a partner tocheck each other out.

(9) In checkouts, each student in apair alternately checked out hispartner on several words fromthe list and in turn was checkedout on several words until bothstudents had addressed alleleven words or time ran out.Checkout of a word was to con-sist of having the student tellthe definition in his own words,not verbatim, and then givenumerous examples of use ofthe concept. For example, makeup a sentence in which a capitalletter is used to designate aproper noun.1

(10) The study and checkoutprocess was timed for exactly30 minutes. All students com-pleted the checkout andresumed individual study beforethe thirty minutes ended.

(11) After the intervention controlstudents were brought back intothe classroom immediately andall students were post-tested.Answer papers were collectedand marked as before.

(12) The control group thenreceived a copy of the punctua-tion glossary and time to study it.

(13) The experimental and controlgroups had remained intactthroughout the process andcomplete pairs of test scoreswere available for analysis.

Measurement of OutcomesThe instrument used for pre- andpost-testing was constructed bythe project director. It consists ofthirteen unpunctuated sentencesto which students were instructedto add appropriate punctuation asthey copied the sentences to the

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1 The intervention, as implemented, had a serious shortcoming. In Keyword Learning a dictionary is an essentialitem, regardless of the use of a glossary. Whenever a student does not grasp a word definition or demonstrate theability to use the underlying concept appropriately there is a misunderstood word in the definition. The studentwould be assisted by his partner in finding the misunderstood word and using a specific five-step procedure toachieve understanding. This part of Keyword Learning was omitted from the trial because of the limited availabil-ity of dictionaries in many schools. Thus misunderstood words were not cleared up and students did not achieve100% proficiency, as should have been the case.

answer paper. The number of pos-sible correct punctuations for thethirteen sentences is 100. A copyof the test is shown in Exhibit B.The correct answers are shown inExhibit C. The test has high facevalidity as it clearly assesses a stu-dent’s ability to apply rules ofpunctuation. Its reliability isenhanced by the complete objec-tivity of scoring. Retest reliabilitywas demonstrated in the post-testscores of the control group, whichvaried not more than three-tenthsof one percentage point in any oneclassroom and on the overall aver-age did not vary at all (see Table Ibelow). The fact that the test wasadministered by the project direc-tor could be seen as a flaw in theobjectivity of measurement.

The test was given immediatelybefore and immediately after theintervention so as to establish adefinite baseline and measure theimmediate result of the interven-tion. Because the intervention wassubsequently delivered to the con-trol group, there was no opportuni-ty to determine whether theexperimental students retained therelative advantage over time. It hasnot been determined whether thetest items were of equal difficulty;therefore differences between pre-test and post-test scores can beinterpreted as showing the direc-tion of change but not the exactmagnitude of change.

RESULTSA controlled trial involving the useof pre-and post-testing to assesschange was conducted with a“teacher-made” test of punctua-tion ability. The test produced rawscores designating the number ofitems answered correctly. Withthese data, due to the limitationsof ordinal scales, the exact magni-tude of differences cannot beknown with certainty and in spiteof adequate sample size, statisticalanalysis is not appropriate. Withthese limiting factors in mind, theanalysis below is based on mereinspection of the data. While thecalculations of changes and differ-ences that are presented in thetable below may appear to be pre-cise, they must be interpreted asapproximate.

The trial was successfully car-ried out in that: (1) the experi-mental and control groups wereequivalent as regards the key char-acteristic – punctuation ability(the two groups scored virtuallythe same on the pre-test); (2)there was no attrition to create dif-ferences between experimentaland control students before thepost-test; (3) control group mem-bers were kept completely sepa-rate during the intervention; and(4) outcome data was available forall participants.

To better understand the poten-

tial of Keyword Learning forimproving educational outcomesin Zimbabwe schools it would beuseful to know how well it works,relatively, according to the mainvariables represented in the partic-ipating schools – ages of studentsand locale of the school. Indeed,both younger students and ruralstudents entered the trial withlower pre-tests scores on the aver-age than their older or urbancounterparts, suggesting that thesevariables might exert an influenceon outcomes. To allow for inspec-tion of this possibility results werecalculated for these subgroups aswell as for the entire sample.Compilations of the pre-and post-test scores are presented in TableI, Pre- and Post-Test ofPunctuation Ability, Scores BySubgroup and Overall and in TableII, Pre- and Post-Test ofPunctuation Ability, Scores ofExperimental and ControlStudents by School.

Summary of Inspections • On the overall average, the

scores of experimental studentsincreased by 17.0% on the post-test while the average for thecontrol group was exactly thesame on the post-test as on thepre-test.65% of the experimentalstudents made double-digit per-centage gains on the post-test.

• In each subgroup – school, locale

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EXPERIMENTAL GROUP CONTROL GROUP

PRE-TEST POST-TEST POINTCHANGE

PERCENTCHANGE PRE-TEST POST-TEST POINT

CHANGEPERCENTCHANGE

OVERALL AVERAGE 4141 4844 703 16.98% 4118 4118 0 0.00%ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (N= 76) 2431 2802 371 15.26% 2428 2430 2 0.08%HIGH SCHOOLS (N=48) 1710 2042 332 19.42% 1690 1688 -2 -0.12%RURAL SCHOOLS (N=60) 1745 2141 396 22.69% 1841 1842 1 0.05%URBAN SCHOOLS (N=64) 2396 2703 307 12.81% 2277 2276 -1 -0.04%

TABLE I. PRE-AND POST-TEST OF PUNCTUATION ABILITYSCORES BY SUBGROUP AND OVERALL

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and age – experimental studentsimproved on the post-test whilecontrol students did not.

• Students in the two rural schoolsgained almost twice as much onthe post-test as students in thetwo urban schools (22.7%increase compared to 12.81%).

• The post-test scores of elemen-tary students improved by15.3%, while high school stu-dents gained 19.4%.

• The highest average score on thepre-test was achieved by theexperimental and control stu-dents in an elementary school.

DISCUSSIONThe intervention in this trial wasconducted with a flawed proce-dure; an essential part of theKeyword Learning process – theuse of a dictionary – was omitted.Thus students did not have theopportunity to apply standard pro-cedure for understanding anywords that blocked their grasp ofthe key word definitions. While afew words selected by the projectdirector as likely to be misunder-stood were clarified orally duringthe exercise, that action was notan adequate substitute for learningwords conceptually through use ofa dictionary and application of theprecise method. For maximumresults – 100% proficiency in thesubject learned – the integrity ofthe Keyword Learning processmust be maintained.

However, in spite of some tech-nical limitations of the study andthe flawed intervention, the results

show that studying key wordsimproved the punctuation abilityof the Zimbabwe students that par-ticipated in the trial. The findingssuggest that the ages of students,at least at the levels examined inthis trial, are not a factor in theeffectiveness of the KeywordLearning method. In fact, the stu-dents in one of the elementaryschools achieved the highest average score on the pre-test.Investigation revealed that thisschool has been encouraging stu-dents to own and use a dictionary.One wonders what the resultsmight have been had these stu-dents used dictionaries duringKeyword Learning.

The superior gains achieved bystudents in the rural subgroupcould be a function of test con-struction. In both rural schools thepre-test scores were lower than inthe other two schools, thus therewas more room for improvementprior to stumbling on any unusual-ly difficult items. An item analysisof the test could clarify this possi-bility. An alternative explanationof the greater gains of rural stu-dents is that students who havebeen frustrated by lack of vocabu-lary to a very high degree tend tochange their attitude toward thesubject when misunderstoodwords are cleared up and to expe-rience a “resurgence of interest aswell as ability in the subject” (KeyWord Glossary, 2004). This expla-nation is consistent with observa-tions of Applied Scholastics inapplying the technique with

underachieving students in theUnited States.

It is not too far a stretch to sug-gest that Keyword Leaning couldimprove the academic perform-ance of Zimbabwe students acrossthe curriculum. Additional, butsmaller randomized control trialsof the technique have been con-ducted with different subject mat-ter and involving two additionalZimbabwe elementary schools inthe Midlands. Using tests and glos-saries for English Grammar,Environmental Science andMathematics the trials (carried outexactly as in the punctuation trial,including without dictionaries),produced results similar to thoseobtained in the present trial.

In the United States KeywordLearning has been evaluated in tri-als that employed non-randomizedcomparison groups. Excellentresults were obtained inMathematics and Language Artsinstruction. In the context of sev-eral successful trials in the UnitedStates and Africa with students ofsimilar ages but different ethnicand cultural backgrounds, thetechnique could now be seen as aneffective educational practice, atleast for the age groups studied.Keyword Learning is simple, costslittle to implement and is so pow-erful that it works, apparently,even when the process is only par-tially implemented. Decision-mak-ers should not need to call foradditional studies to support itsuse in educational environments.

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© 2006 Applied Scholastics International. All Rights Reserved. The Applied Scholastics open book design and the Effective Education Publishing design are trademarks and service marks owned byAssociation for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission. Applied Scholastics International is a non-profit, educational organization and does not discriminate on thebasis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or age in its programs and activities.

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PUNCTUATION- The system and method of using marks(symbols) in writing that makes the written communi-cation clearer.

PUNCTUATION MARKS- These marks are used to aidthe sense of what is being written and divide thematerial into sentences and clauses, etc. Examples:period . comma , question mark ?

CAPITAL LETTER- 1. These are tall letters and alwayslarger than a small letter. Examples: Aa, Bb, Cc, etc2. Capital letters are used as the first letter for allproper nouns. e.g. Precious Mhuri.3. All sentences start with a capital letter.

PROPER NOUN- The name of a particular person, placething or idea. Proper nouns always start with a capitalletter.

PERIOD- 1. A period is a dot. It is used to show wherethe end of a sentence is. 2. A period also shows that a word has been madeshorter or abbreviated. e.g. Mon. (Monday) ; Dec.(December).3. A period is also used after numbers or letters toseparate them from the words following. e.g. Beforeyou leave: 1. Close the window. 2. Turn off the lights.3. Lock the door.

COMMA - 1. A comma is used to separate words orgroups of words from each other.

2. A comma is used to separate a series of items andactually means “and” or “or.” e.g. Joe has pens, paper,pencils and books.3. When you read aloud, a comma tells you to take asmall pause. The comma’s function then is to makethe sentence clearly understood.

QUESTION MARK- A mark that like this (?) used aftera sentence that asks a question.

QUESTION- Something said to another or others to getinformation. e.g. Where is my dog?

QUOTATION MARKS- 1. Marks used to show exactlywhat someone said.2. Quotation marks are also used to enclose titles ofmagazine articles, songs, poems, movies, chapters ofbooks, articles, short stories and other parts of booksand periodicals.

APOSTROPHE- 1. A mark used to show that somethingis owned or belongs to somebody. e.g. Susan’s bike.2. An apostrophe is used to show that a letter or let-ters have been left out of a word. e.g. He cannot go. Hecan’t go.

EXCLAMATION POINT- A mark that looks like this !used to show surprise, strong feeling or to add empha-sis. e.g. Oops! Wow! Ouch!

Exhibit A. APPLIED SCHOLASTICS—ZIMBABWE—PUNCTUATION KEY WORDS

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Exhibit B. APPLIED SCHOLASTICS—ZIMBABWE

PUNCTUATION TEST

Put in capital letters and punctuation marks,where needed:

1 when enos fell into the river he shouted help

2 the guard asked where is your ticket

3 in my pocket i answered

4 the zambezi limpopo congo and niger are fourafrican rivers

5 peter said thats my book

6 the poem bongwi was written by kingsley fair-bridge

7 mr tembos car is bright red

8 pinoss uncle lives in mutare

9 the headmaster of rengwe school is mr s moyo

10 next sunday the service will be in all saintschurch at two oclock

11 no no no exclaimed sarah

12 the west african advertiser is a newspaper

13 tom sam and i are good friends

Exhibit C. APPLIED SCHOLASTICS—ZIMBABWE

PUNCTUATION TEST ANSWERS

1. When Enos fell into the river, he shouted, “Help!” 9

2. The guard asked, “Where is your ticket?” 7

3. “In my pocket,” I answered. 7

4. The Zambezi, Limpopo, Congo and Niger are fourAfrican rivers. 9

5. Peter said, “That’s my book.” 8

6. The poem, “Bongwi” was written by Kingsley Fairbridge. 8

7. Mr. Tembo’s car is bright red. 6

8. Pinos’s uncle lives in Mutare. 5

9. The headmaster of Rengwe School is Mr. S. Moyo. 9

10. Next Sunday the service will be in All Saints Church at two o’clock. 8

11. “No! No! No!” exclaimed Sarah. 10

12. The “West African Advertiser” is a newspaper. 8

13. Tom, Sam and I are good friends. 6

TOTAL 100

Marks