On the topic of the usefulness of punctuation, students might enjoy the challenge of punctuating the following to make it a coherent sentence, using only commas, quotation marks, and a semicolon. James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher. Check here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_h ad_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher> for a solution. (Sure to be denounced by Brad Johnston.) Conversely there's the ever-popular "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_bu ffalo_Buffalo_buffalo> ," which does just fine as a sentence without any internal punctuation. Dick ________________________________ Richard Veit Department of English University of North Carolina Wilmington To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/