Year 9 Writing – Punctuation for Meaning 1

The child practises finding and fixing colon, semicolon, bracket, dash and apostrophe errors in a school report draft. 12 questions. 25 minutes.

Draft A: A report on the school's recycling program

(1) Our school's recycling program began two years ago, and this report explains how well it is working. (2) The program collects: paper, plastic bottles and aluminium cans. (3) Recycling stations stand in the library, beside the front desk, the canteen, under the noticeboard, and the gym, near the courts. (4) The student committee (a group of eight volunteers from Years 9 and 10, meets every Friday to empty the bins. (5) The volunteer's roster, pinned beside the canteen door, shows who empties each bin on which day.

(6) Last term, a survey of 200 students at our school asked what they recycle at home and at school. (7) Paper recycling has doubled, however plastic recycling has barely changed. (8) The results varied by year level; Year 7 recycled most, while Year 12 recycled least. (9) After the survey results showed that most students could not tell which bin suited which material the committee redesigned every sign. (10) The three bins – paper, plastic and cans, stand beside each classroom door.

(11) Contamination is the main problem; students drop food scraps into the paper bin; the cleaners then reject the whole load. (12) Despite regular reminders; the problem has not eased. (13) The new lids – which are colour-coded for each material have cut the mixing of plastic and paper. (14) Our weekly bin checks found that contamination fell from 40 per cent to 15 per cent in one term.

(15) The committee has one clear goal: to cut general waste by half before the end of the year. (16) The program has grown quickly, but it's budget has stayed the same since the first year. (17) Last year, the committee's funds came from a single bake sale. (18) This year, the school council has promised a small grant, and the committee hopes to buy larger bins with it.