Research Matters

variant of the tense they chose, were not counted. However, whenever a non-word was produced it
was counted as a spelling error. For example,‘strided’ for strode is counted as a spelling error,
because it is not a dictionary defined word.The candidate has overgeneralised the rule governing
the formation of the past simple, and has produced a nonsense spelling.
American spellings were included in the count.
To some extent, the rules regarding spelling can seem a little arbitrary, or even pedantic.We have
sought here to follow the same principles as we have applied in the past, whilst allowing for some
evolution (and, in some cases, relaxation) of spelling conventions over the years.We present the
full list in Appendix C to enable readers to judge for themselves.
Non-Standard English
Examples of Non-Standard English were collected in the 100-word sampling frame. However,
as with similar information in 2007, the verification, analysis and discussion of the information has
proved beyond the scope of this report.This information will be analysed and reported separately
at a later date.
Capital letters
Figures 6 to 12 show the data relating to the use, both correct and incorrect, of capital letters
within the texts written by students.
In 2014, there was little change in the number of instances of correct usage of a capital letter at the
beginning of a sentence compared to the previous years (Figure 6), although higher attaining
students slightly outperformed those from both 2004 and 2007, and lower attaining students had
yet to return to the level of performance seen in 2004. Lower attaining students were found to
omit a greater number of capital letters from the beginning of sentences in 2014 than in the
previous years (Figure 7).This trend shows a marked change from the 2004 and 2007 samples.
However, the number of instances of correct or omitted use of a capital letter at the beginning of a
sentence is, to an extent, mediated by the number of sentences written by the students.Therefore,
Figure 8 shows the proportion 2 of correctly used capital letters at the beginning of a sentence.
This shows that in 2014 there was little change amongst higher attaining students and a reduction
in the correct use of a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence amongst lower attaining
students.
Figures 9 and 10 show that in 2014 there is an increase in the use of proper nouns in general, both
correctly capitalised and with the capital letter omitted, compared to the previous years.
Figure 11 shows the mean instance of capital letters used unnecessarily for non-proper nouns.To an
extent, candidate handwriting makes this a judgemental exercise; it is not always easy to determine
whether candidates intended to use a capital letter in certain examples.Where possible, the benefit
of the doubt was given to the student, but the trend still seems to be a slight increase in instances
of unnecessary capitalisation across all grades in 2014 compared to the previous years.The large
increase at grade G in 2014 is, in part, due to two individual students whose 100-word sample
included a disproportionate number of capitalised words. If these two samples were omitted from
the count, the mean instance would reduce to 2.12.
2.The proportions were calculated by summing the number of correct and incorrect instances to give a total.This total cannot be related
directly to the data shown in Table 7 (Average sentence length) because that data pertains to sentences with punctuation as indicated by the
candidate, whilst this data relates to the grammatical sentences identified by the judges, irrespective of students’ punctuation marks.
24 | RESEARCH MATTERS – SPECIAL ISSUE 4: Aspects of Writing 1980–2014