The writing of three attainment groups of 10- to 11-year-old children was used to investigate their use of ludic (playful) punctuation in the composition of an advertisement for a new dessert. Framed within a consideration of language play in general, and children’s use of punctuation in particular, the investigation revealed the ways in which primary children use playful punctuation in order to achieve their persuasive aims. There were clear differences between the attainment groups in both the content and range of these uses. The findings suggest that such uses—like language play as a whole—warrant further attention in educational research. Children use playful punctuation in distinctive ways without being prompted to do so. Future work needs to identify the writing tasks that enable the use of playful punctuation to flourish.

中文翻译：

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小学儿童写作中的俏皮标点符号

三个 10 至 11 岁儿童的成就组的写作被用来调查他们在新甜点广告的组成中使用 ludic（俏皮）标点符号。在总体上考虑语言游戏，特别是儿童使用标点符号的框架内，调查揭示了小学儿童使用有趣的标点符号以实现说服目标的方式。在这些使用的内容和范围上，成就组之间存在明显差异。研究结果表明，此类用途——如整体语言游戏——在教育研究中值得进一步关注。孩子们在没有被提示的情况下以独特的方式使用有趣的标点符号。未来的工作需要确定使俏皮标点符号的使用蓬勃发展的写作任务。