Punctuation, Spelling and Cohesion in a Short Review
Student review draft: 'last month i went on a school exchange to vigo. it was amazing, the food was great the people were friendly. My host sister she showed me the old town. I didn't knew anyone before, but now we are friends. However, I recommend this experience.' The task was a 100-word review for the school blog; the student wrote 62 words and used no paragraphs. The rubric awards 3 marks for punctuation, 3 for spelling and capitalisation, 2 for grammar accuracy, and 2 for cohesion. The student scored 4/10 and asks why 'However' is wrong when it is a linking word.
1. List the errors in the draft, correct them, and classify each as orthography, punctuation, grammar, or cohesion.
Read the worked answer
- 'last month i' → Last month I: orthography/capitalisation (sentence start; pronoun I).
- 'vigo' → Vigo: orthography (proper noun).
- 'it was amazing, the food was great the people were friendly' → It was amazing: the food was great, and the people were friendly. Punctuation: comma splice plus a missing comma/conjunction.
- 'My host sister she showed' → My host sister showed: grammar (double subject).
- 'didn't knew' → didn't know: grammar (after did, use the base form).
- 'However, I recommend' → Therefore / All in all, I recommend: cohesion. 'However' signals contrast, but there is no contrast before the recommendation.
2. Rewrite the review as a cohesive 90-100 word paragraph with at least three different linking devices. List them.
Read the worked answer
Last month I went on a school exchange to Vigo. It was amazing: the food was great, and the people were friendly. My host sister showed me the old town, which was beautiful. Although I didn't know anyone before I arrived, I soon made friends. For example, we cooked a Galician dinner together on the last night. What is more, the family helped me practise Spanish every day. All in all, I recommend this experience to any student who wants to improve their language skills and experience a different culture.
Linking devices: Although (concession), For example (exemplification), What is more (addition), All in all (summary).
3. Explain the punctuation rule behind the original comma splice and give one repair strategy.
Read the worked answer
A comma alone cannot join two independent clauses. In 'it was amazing, the food was great', both 'it was amazing' and 'the food was great' can stand alone, so the comma is a splice. Repair it with a full stop: 'It was amazing. The food was great.'; with a semicolon: 'It was amazing; the food was great.'; or with a comma plus a coordinating conjunction: 'It was amazing, and the food was great.' The third option is closest to the original but still needs the conjunction.