The implementation levels of writing and punctuation rules of 4th grade primary school students

The aim of the present study is to figure out the transfer levels of writing and punctuation rules in the written works of 4th grade primary school students. Additionally, the present study tries to examine the role of the gender, socio-economic welfare, and educational backgrounds of the parents on the transfer levels of writing and punctuation rules in the written works of 4th graders. Regarding this main purpose and taking the objectives of Turkish course into account, a text, which has no punctuation and written all in lower-case letters, including intentionally misspelled words was administered to the 4th graders. Subsequently, participants were asked to correct the spelling mistakes and punctuation errors on the text, if necessary. In the analysis the data, first of all, all the spelling and punctuation uses of the participants were examined separately and the participants? correct or wrong uses of the rules were calculated. Their mean scores and standard deviations were also computed through SPSS 18.0 software program. The scope of the present study is roughly 6883 4th graders who were enrolling in primary schools in Kepez district of Antalya during 2012-2013 academic year. The sample of the research includes 188 4th graders who enrolled in `Baraj Primary School?, `Mobil Primary School? and private AKEV College. The analysis of the gathered data revealed that the transfer levels of writing and punctuation rules in the written works of 4th grade primary school students is considerably below the expected level. Additionally, it is found out that while there is not any significant difference in terms of the gender of the students on the transfer levels of writing and punctuation rules in the written works, there were slightly significant differences in terms of socio-economic welfare and educational backgrounds of the parents. Keywords: Writing and Punctuation Rules, socio-economic welfare and educational backgrounds of the parents, primary school.