The Strand Poly Grammar School

It’s generally accepted that by the time someone makes it to a ‘Golden Triangle’ university  they’ve learned the basic rules of grammar along the way.

Not so at The Strand Poly where the geography department has issued a guide entitled: “Common Grammar Errors: The Confusion of the Apostrophe”, giving students a helping hand with essay writing.

The guide includes a reminder to “capitalize the first word of a sentence” and features a seven point guide on “where to put the apostrophe” when “one is trying to indicate possession”.

In addition to informing geographers at KCL about what exactly colons and semicolons are, and when they should be used (requiring a seven point explanation), the guide encourages students not to “overexaggerate” when writing essays. Stating that, “vegetation is the most important resource for humans”, is, in the view of the author, “an overexaggeration” and is to be avoided.

If students find that the two-page guide isn’t sufficient then they have no need to panic. A list of ten further sources of helpful advice are included, such as “Plain English” by Collinson and Kirkup, which is a mere £17. A small price to pay to gain valuable skills that clearly can’t be picked up simply with a KCL education.

Perhaps it isn’t surprising that it’s not just students who need to fear making such fundamental errors however. The tagline at the top of the guide states: “This is a guide to common grammar errors. If you find errors, please email…”

Safe in the knowledge that their lecturers aren’t secure in their grasp of the English language The Strand Poly’s geography students can get stuck in to some proper work without fear of putting a comma in the wrong place. Sharpening their colouring pencils may, however, prove more challenging.

To take a peak at some of the exclusive grammatical advice afforded to Strand Poly students click here: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/geography/current/guidance/all/grammar.pdf