English - Quoting a Sentence in OE Comprehension

[PiggyLalala]

ridcully:

PiggyLalala:

What is the difference between ' ' and '' ''? Are they not interchangeable?

Please see my answer to jedamum.

:celebrate:

:thankyou: very much for the detailed and clear explanation again.

[corneyAmber]

jedamum:

ksi:

[quote=\"jedamum\"]
R,
Just noticed something.
eg, the question,
In the passage, which word has the same meaning as \"very important\"?
My ds wrote, It is 'crucial'.

should the punctuation be \"crucial\" or 'crucial'? my ds' said his teacher said is the latter.

TIA>

:faint:

:faint: as in my question is not crucial? :oops: [/quote]No jedamum, your question is a good one but I see pain if marks are deducted for this. As ridcully puts it, as long as the pair of quotes is consistent, we should not pick a bone in it. If it is marked not as wrong but advised to use back the same quotes, then it is fine. I feel being a child these days with everything controlled by marks.

[jedamum]

R, :thankyou: again :salute:

[MathIsFun]

In case not clarified yet, here is what should be correct (as far as I know).


For words:
The word is \"nonchalant\".

For phrases:
The phrase is \"ate like a pig\".

For sentences:
The sentence is \"John ate like a pig.\"

The fullstop should only be inside the quote when it is a sentence, therefore for the 1st post, (c) is the correct answer.

[AgonyMum]

Dear MathIsFun,

I was the concerned mum who posted the first question,which you have just kindly contributed your answer.May I ask if you are absolutely certain about your choice \"He ate like a pig.\"(with a single full-stop inside the speech marks and no other full-stop at the end of the whole sentence.Different schools/teachers seem to be teaching /accepting different versions.How did you derive at your choice?

Thanks a bunch!

[chasingjelly]

AgonyMum:

Hi,can someone help to clarify the proper way of quoting a sentence?


In Open-ended Compre,children are often asked to find a sentence from the passage -

eg. Which sentence in paragragh 2 tells you that John is famished?
Should the answer be

a. The sentence is \"John ate like a pig.\".
(There are two punctuations so it is wrong)

b. The sentence is \"John ate like a pig\".
(You are quoting a sentence so the full stop belongs to that sentence)

c. The sentence is \"John ate like a pig.\"
(this is the correct way to quote a sentence)

I am not sure of the correect way to punctuate.
Pls help.Thanks!

Only when quoting a phrase, the full stop ends outside.

hth

[ridcully]

MathIsFun:

For sentences:
The sentence is \"John ate like a pig.\"

The fullstop should only be inside the quote when it is a sentence, therefore for the 1st post, (c) is the correct answer.

I agree that this answer would be accepted in most Singaporean, and other, schools. However, I still persist that the full stop really belongs to the bigger sentence within which the quote is enclosed and so the full stop should go outside the quotation marks. Here's why, and you're most welcome to correct me, and I will be grateful if proven wrong:

Not all sentences end in an endmark such as a full stop: They can end in, for instance, a semi-colon because they are being connected to a subsequent sentence. Let's say we have:

John ate like a pig; it's really disgusting to watch him.

Would you write?:

The sentence is \"John ate like a pig;\"

You would be forced, unless you are using American English, to write:

The sentence is \"John ate like a pig\".

Anyway, that's not run-of-the-mill and I apologise in advance if I have clouded the waters further.

Rgds
R

[bookwormkids]

AgonyMum:

Very grateful for the responses from all parents and educators.However,after reading through all the mail,I realised that there is no concensus about this issue.I have looked through quite a number of assessment books and all their supposed \"model answers\" are somewhat different.


Is it possible to approach MOE for clarification?How do I go about doing this?Would really appreciate some advice.
Thanks!

Hi I can understand your agony and :frustrated:

I'd attended my P3 kid's parent workshop somewhere early in this year. This topic was covered under \"common errors\" made by students. See below:

1) Give a sentence
E.g.
Q) Which sentence in the passage tells you that John is happy?

A1 The sentence is \"He feels contented.\". (This is correct.)
or
A2 The sentence is \"He feels contented.\" tell us so. (This is correct too.)

> Copy word for word.
> Do not leave out any word or punctuation.
> Do not put a comma after \"is\".

For A1, The main sentence must end with a full-stop to complete it (as in A2) (Hope my layman term is clear. :oops: )

For your info, we were told by the HOD English that:
1. All sentence quoting, students have to use double quote, \"....\"

2. All phrases quoting, students have to use single quote, '....'

I really have to salute to all the kids having to remember all these!!! :yikes: :faint: :faint:

No need to go to MOE to clarify lah, just email to the HOD English for their marking scheme will do, just my humble opinion.

Hope my post doesn't offend any expert here...

[corneyAmber]

Bookwormkids, thanks for sharing. Regarding clarifying with MOE, if every school teaches and marks differently, this would be a question beyond HOD as they cannot even standardize among themselves. To me, this is only a convention, it does not stop us from understanding the intent of the sentence so there is no real importance in terms of knowledge, the only real importance is how PSLE marks it to avoid the loss of points, that’s all. I don’t think anyone will be penalized at work for such punctuations unless it completely changes the meaning of the sentence and whether single or double quotations, it is the same. It is not going to make a company lose it’s competitive advantage to submit a tender document with a pair of single quotes or double quotes, that is the reality.

[AgonyMum]

Dear bookwormkids,chasingjelly,MathIsFun,ksi and ridcully,a very big thank you for all careful and detailed explanation.I find all the discussion really helpful.


From a very grateful mum. :grphug: