When Punctuation Agent Sam examines a bewildered Connor's grocery list from his wife, he informs him, "Connor, you're in desperate need of some commas and one colon." I don't know where Connor would be without a colon (up some creek, I suspect), but without commas, he doesn't have a clue whether he's supposed to get "garlic butter" or "garlic, butter." Hosted by "Barnaby Quip," this episode in a three-part series on English composition (the other titles are The Perfect Paragraph and The Perfect Sentence, each also priced at $90) underscores the fact that proper punctuation determines meaning, while the lack of correct punctuation can quickly lead to confusion. Following a joke-y (and somewhat hokey) opening in which Barnaby engages in cute wordplay to set up the concept of "punctuation agents" in the field reporting grammar infractions, the program cuts to Punctuation Agent Sabrina's work with a theater student's poorly punctuated monologue. As the pair go through the extensive monologue sentence by sentence, students learn about using commas with independent and dependent clauses, appositives, mild interjections, quotation marks, and participial phrases, as well as where to place semi-colons. Although the framing device and acting are a little on the amateur side, the information is rock solid. Kids who pay attention to this brief guide will actually receive a good, comprehensive introduction to proper punctuation. Recommended. Aud: I, J. (R. Pitman)
Perfect Punctuation
(1998) 31 min. $90 (teacher's guide included). CLEARVUE/eav. PPR. Closed captioned. Vol. 15, Issue 6
Perfect Punctuation
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.