Janet

You are doing a good job of pointing out the uselessness of trying to be
too specific about fuzzy things.
I've lived through about four waves of this kind of attempt to quantify the
unquantifiable. The phrase below takes the cake.

                "some sophisticated punctuation attempted"

Perhaps they mean the students should practice pronequarks and interrobangs
in addition to measly commas and periods.

I'd sure like to know what the writer of this had in mind, too.

In fact, why don't you really go off the deep end and try to find out who
did write these objectives and ask them. The answer should be interesting.

I. A. Richards, in his book BEYOND (1973) found about 14 different ways to
use quotations marks. I think that's quite sophisticated, don't you?

akra
Albert E. Krahn
mail:     [log in to unmask]
home:   http://punctuation.org
course: http://online.matc.edu/eng-201/
list:       [log in to unmask]

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful commited citizens
can change the world.  Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
                                                                          --
--Margaret Mead
(on the wall of  the Millennium Restaurant, 246 Mc Allister St., San Francisco)