Integrated course of teaching foreign languages

Reviewing related literature

Punctuation is an element of text writing that plays an important

role in determining the meaning of a text. Despite its textual needs in

writing, it seems to be a rather neglected area of study in linguistics

Garavelli (2003). This negligence is widely observed in the errors made

by the students of Sudanese secondary schools in Nyala Locality in

writing. In addition to that, they misapply punctuation marks in writing.

In punctuating texts, it was observed that there were various problems

such as, errors, omission and unawareness of using appropriate

punctuation when composing them. This reflects a picture of students'

weakness as they use punctuation.

According to McCuen & Winkler (2000) punctuation errors occur

with the omission or misuse of one of the punctuation marks. It is necessary for students to avoid them and acquire their correct uses. Their

omission, misuse or misunderstanding as students use punctuation marks

in a sentence might change the meaning of that sentence.

Notice the following sentences.