children's writng

Robbie Ogden
Year 4
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/lever/PROJECTS/41/xc41/xc4106x.jpg


In this piece of writing, the child overgeneralises the grammatical function of apostrophes, using them frequently when not needed after a word contains the inflectional suffix 's', such as "boy's". This shows this child understands the rules of needing to use apostrophes for certain words but has over applied the rule in this text. These types of virtuous errors link to Chomsky that children have a sense of grammar as they haven't exactly been taught to use apostrophes at the end of every word with the inflectional suffix 's' but they are using it here.
Capital letters are also used in the middle of sentences on numerous occasions, such as "hundred's of men played in the same game At the same time." The child may have made this mistake here as the word 'at' can be frequently used at the start of sentences in children's writing.
The child also spelt words only with their salient sounds, such as "becos" and wer".


Year 5
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/lever/PROJECTS/53/RO53/ro5305x.jpg


In this piece of work in year 5, the virtuous error of applying apostrophes to most, if not all, words ending in the inflectional suffix 's' doesn't occur anymore showing the progress they have made in a year. This may have been corrected independently, but more than likely a teacher helped him with his overgeneralisation and helped him understand where and when not to use them.
However, the grammatical error of using a capital letter in the middle of sentences still occurs, such as "hunt by Day".