Writing

Conventions

When do you use an uppercase letter?

1. At the beginning of a sentence.

The first word in quotation marks.

The teacher said, “Good morning everyone!”

2. I (when you are talking about yourself)

When I went to the store, I bought an orange.

3. Names

a) People and Titles (Billie Eilish, Tom Holland, Ms. Newbold)

b) Places or Companies (Dollarama, Netflix, Charlottetown)

c) Times (Monday, February, Valentine’s Day)

d) Books, Movies, TV Shows, Video Games (Amulet, Fortnite, Toy Story)

What is a sentence?

A sentence has 4 things:

a subject (who or what)
a predicate (what is happening - verb or action)
a complete thought
punctuation at the end

Which is a sentence? Which are the sentence fragments? Can you fix them?

Going to the store tomorrow.
If I go.
Do you want something?

Punctuation helps your reader understand when a thought is finished. Also, it gives the reader time to pause for comprehension.

What is a run-on sentence?

When you put too many ideas together, you make a run-on sentence. It is harder for your reader to understand and it can be tiring to read.

Tips:

When you are writing, put in the periods right away when you finish a thought.
Re-read your writing out-loud. Where should the pauses go? Do you have punctuation there?

Example:

I went to the beach this weekend with my family and we played volleyball in the sand but after an hour it got cold and started to rain so sadly we had to go home.

Subjects: I, we, it (the weather)

Predicates: went to the beach, played volleyball, got cold and started to rain, went home

Correction:

I went to the beach this weekend with my family. We played volleyball in the sand. After an hour, it got cold and started to rain. Sadly, we had to go home.

Use Structure & Punctuation to Show Feeling

What feeling do you want to show in this section?

How can you communicate it with your writing structure or punctuation?

Read your work out loud and notice where you put emphasis and where you pause.

You want: to show a strong emotion (excitement, surprise, horror)

Try: Exclamation Point (!)

Example: "The TRAIN is coming!"

You want: to build tension or suspense

Try: Ellipsis (...)

Example: The teacher looked into her cup and saw...a large black fly swimming in her tea.

You want: a hurried feeling OR a sentence with a punch

Try: Short sentences

Example: Suddenly, he fell.

When do I need a paragraph break?

It is really tiring to look at a page of text with no breaks. You are making your reader work hard to focus. It is also difficult to tell when things are changing.

Use paragraphs to break up the text.
Use paragraphs to group things that happen together.
Use breaks to show when things are changing (a different time, feeling, action, etc.)
Use breaks to separate people who are talking (just like a speech bubble.)
Paragraphs can be used for dramatic effect, as well.

When we are writing, we can indent the first line of a new paragraph. Or, we can leave a space between paragraphs. Choose which one you want to do.

Look at a book and see if you can identify why the author put in their paragraphs.

How do we punctuate dialogue?

1) Put quotation marks around the part that the person is saying. It acts like a speech bubble. Some people think the marks look like a 66 and 99.

"I'm having a good time"

2) Put a comma between the dialogue and the surrounding sentence.

Sam told me, "I'm having a good time," but his face said he wasn't.

3) Start a new paragraph when a new person starts talking. Don't forget to tell the reader who is talking.

Sam told me, "I'm having a good time," but his face said he wasn't.

"Cheer up," I said. "You're not losing that badly!"

4) If you are using an exclamation point or a question mark in your dialogue, you do not need the comma, because you already have punctuation. However, you still use a lowercase letter to finish the sentence.

"Why are all the questions about famous people?" he asked. "I can never remember their names."

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