Year 6 - English
Parenthesis: brackets, dashes and commas
Key terminology, including determiners, fronted adverbials and parenthesis
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils review previous learning about four types of determiner and fronted adverbials. They also review using brackets, dashes and commas for parenthesis and how to use synonyms and antonyms effectively as well as learning about new functions of prepositions and adverbs.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to choose when to use brackets, dashes or commas for most effective parenthesis.
Key Notes
- Parenthesis can be achieved with a range of punctuation: brackets, dashes and commas.
- Any type of parenthesis is additional information that can be removed without compromising grammatical accuracy.
- Brackets are useful in non-fiction writing to add extra, factual information.
- Dashes are useful in fiction writing for dramatic effect.
- Commas are useful to drop information in to a clause.
Vocabulary To Learn
- parenthesis: additional information that is added to a sentence; if it is removed, the sentence still makes sense
- brackets: a punctuation mark used to add extra, factual information in a clause
- dashes: a punctuation mark to add extra information in a clause often for dramatic effect
- clause: a group of words that contains a verb
- phrase: a group of words with no verb
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may believe dashes and commas are used interchangeably in fiction writing.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Parenthesis can be achieved with a range of punctuation: brackets, dashes and commas. Any type of parenthesis is additional information that can be removed without compromising grammatical accuracy.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'parenthesis'
additional information that is added to a sentence; if it is removed, the sentence still makes sense.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may believe dashes and commas are used interchangeably in fiction writing. Correction: We favour using dashes when we are showing a dramatic effect and commas when simply adding detail.
More Lessons In This Unit
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