We had a very interesting discussion this morning. Is punctuation important. Beth, the teacher I’m working with at the moment, was frustrated by the way children expect to get maths and sport right, because there are defined goals and targets. There’s a right way and a wrong way to both score a goal and get a sum to add up.

But writing is different. I think there are a couple of reasons.

The first is because writing splits into two distinct phases – the creative ideas and planning stage followed by the sequential craft and graft stage. We are generally good at one or the other. None of us likes the punctuation bit.

I was looking at quite a bit of writing this morning. A few times I started to suggest adding or taking away punctuation then changed my mind as I heard the writer’s voice in my head and realised that I was making a style change rather than a comprehension change. It is this element of personal style that makes us loathe to criticise. This hesitation compounds itself to the point where we don’t like to point out anything that needs changing, however glaring the mistake.

If your computer programming teacher suggests you should change a comma to a semi colon, you would do it without argument. Programming languages are very precise. One wrong instruction (or piece of punctuation) and, at the best, the program stops working – at worst, it crashes and you lose a week’s worth of work!

Why should writing stories be any different. The pattern and order of words should be laid out in a particular way that the reader can interpret the intention of the writer. A piece of writing is just a storytelling program. Stray from the protocols and the reader interprets the text differently to the writer’s intention.

Maybe children don’t know why they are writing at school. Who is their audience? Notes can be written any old how – they are not for publication and we presume the writer will be able to read them back. (Although this is frequently not the case!)

Any other writing must surely be done consciously for an audience, with punctuation in the right place. Style can be argued over later.

The reader needs the correct program instructions, otherwise the writing does not make sense and their brain crashes and stalls, fed up and frustrated.

You can be the most graceful and powerful footballer in the world, but if you don’t aim at the goal, you’re not in the team.

P.S. I’m not perfect, so please don’t nag me about my punctuation. I like to think I have my own style!