Thank you so much for the essay pieces. It has been so long since I've been in school and I'll need these reminders on how to get the job done.

You're welcome Rebecca. Let me know if there are other topics that you would like to information on. :-)

I would love to know what grammar changes have occurred in the last twenty years. Formatting of papers as well as punctuation has changed over the years.

Hi Rebecca,
Now you have me interested. I was not aware that there were grammar changes or changes in the formatting of papers over the years. In the college course I took about 4 years ago,I used the same formatting I had used 30 or more years previously for my university courses and I never had any of my instructors say anything about changes.

Now I will do some research to find out what kinds of changes there have been.

I was told in school that I had to space between sentence 2 spaces. Now it is one. Over the years, the formatting and grammar rules do change. Even on how to use commas. It drives me nuts.

The space thing isn't really a language change - it's a proportional font change. In the old days of single spaced fonts (i.e. typewriters), you put two spaces and it would do something. In modern times with proportional fonts the words all expand or contract automatically to match the space so you can no longer "play with spacing". So that all has to do with the way fonts work now.

That's the only change I really know about though. And there's a solid reason for that.

What change do you think there's been with commas?

I was taught to put a comma after the item in a list including the one preceding "and". My husband's teacher's told him not to. We have noticed many changes between what his teacher's taught him and what mine taught me.

I talked with a language arts teacher, and she said that grammar changes along with punctuation changes do occur though most are not huge changes. There is talk now of eliminating the hyphen in correct English.

The comma thing ... some say yes, some say no. I prefer it because you can say, for instance:

cake, tea, bread and water, and flour
OR
cake, tea, bread and water and flour

Those two differences denote different meanings to me.

Same here.

When I got to college (the first time), half the class got their first papers marked up because of comma issues. The teacher was adamant that the rule was different than what we used. A poll showed that half the class had been taught one way in high school and the other half the opposite. That difference gave me a B instead of an A on my paper.

LOL, I keep my little punctuation guides handy (not just MLA and APA stuff). I'll argue (if I have to) 'til the cows come home.

I have to wonder why an instructor would worry about a little thing like a comma being used incorrectly when it seems to me that a comma before "and" has always been accepted both ways. LOL I was taught to put a comma whenever you would naturally pause in a sentence and I have always followed that rule and never been corrected on a comma - either for leaving one out or putting one in anywhere in an essay.

It is only in the past few years that I have started using hyphens, and I use them all the time now. I love them. My grammar book from about 40 years ago says that they can be used in place of brackets but I didn't used to know that. Since my writing now is not for academia, I am going to continue using hyphens whenever I want.

I do think that there should be a recommended grammar reference for a school that a student and teachers can consult so that they are all on the same page.

I totally agree. I'll find out now that I'm back in school what they consider the "right" way.