Grammar Exercises

Add semicolons, colons, dashes, quotation marks in the following sentences:

1. There was only one thing to do study till dawn.

2. Montaigne wrote the following A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

3. The following are the primary colors red, blue, and yellow.

4. Arriving on the 8 10 plane were Liz Brooks, my old roommate her husband and Tim, their son.

5. When the teacher commented that her spelling was poor, Lynn replied All the members of my family are poor spellers. Why not me?

Review for Quiz

You'll need to know the following:

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin"
"Speech in the Virginia Convention" - note: outline the argument
Thesis: The question before us is one of either freedom or slavery
Points: 1) It is natural to give into the illusions of hope but we must look at experience
a) The British over the last ten years have not responded to us
b) The British have made warlike preparations against us and sent armies and navies to Americas.
1) Who are these armies and navies for? These are implements of war and subjugation.
2) Has the British any enemy in this quarter of the world?
2) We have petitioned, remonstrated, prostrated ourselves before the thorn looking to amended the situation and we have ignored.
3) We can't listen to arguments that we are too weak to oppose the British or we'll find ourselves chained, bound hand and foot.
4) We are not weak.
a) We have 3 million citizens
b) God is on our side
c) God will rise up friends to help us
d) Besides it is too late not to fight
Conclusion: As for me give me liberty or give me death!

Correct the Punctuation

Put in semicolons, colons, dashes, quotation marks, where ever they are needed in the following sentences.

1. Several countries participated in the airlift Italy, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg.

2. Only one course was open to us surrender, said the ex-major, and we did.

3. Judge Carswell later to be nominated for the Supreme Court had ruled against civil rights.

4. In last week's New Yorker, one of my favorite magazines, I enjoyed reading Leland's article How Not to Go Camping.

5. Yes, Jim said, I'll be home by ten.

What's wrong with the punctuation?

The following are from the book EATS SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynne Truss.

1) Leonora walked on her head, a little higher than usual.
2) The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank and swam to the river-bank.
3) Don't guess, use a timer or watch.
4) The convict said the judge is mad.

SAT List # 3

1) Obsolete

2) Paucity

3) Philistine

4) Meticulous

5) Officious

6) Peruse

7) Mitigate

8) Perfidy

9) Morose

Sentence Combining

Today you'll be required to take notes on the dash. Remember you should already have notes on the comma, colon, and semi-colon. You're expected to know how to use these punctuation marks properly and to practice using them.

Today's sentence combining exercise:

The bear was big. The bear broke open the garbage. The bear ate the left over pizza. Dan's father shot the bear. Dan cried.

Combining Sentences

Espionage is the secret collection of intelligent information. The history of espionage goes back over two thousand years. Espionage was started in China by Sun Tzu.

Combining Sentences

Kernal: John owns a hat.

John loves to wear hats. John's girlfriend likes to see John in cowboy hats. John's hero is John Wayne.

Combining Sentences

We're going to work with combining sentences and discuss sentence kernels, connective, subordinative, and adjectival modes of progression.

Exercise number 1:

Kernal: My shoes are Nikes.

Sentences to combine: My Nike shoes are designed to play tennis. My Nikes have air soles. I like their weight.

Exercise number 2:

Kernal: Breakfast is my favorite meal.

Sentences to combine: I like hot food for breakfast. I prefer eggs and bacon to oatmeal. A good breakfast always starts my day off right.

Complex Sentences

For Thursday, finish study questions on "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" and then do the practice exercises on the following website

If you need more background on complex sentences please go here

Know the following readings:

"The Iroquois Constitution"
"The Devastation of the West Indies"
"The General History of Virginia"
"Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God"
"Of Plymouth Plantation"

1) Know what type of document it is (Political, Religious (as a sermon), history, biography)
2) Know the purpose of the document (why was it recorded? what was the author's intentions?)
3) Be able to summarize the document.
4) Review study questions for each reading.

SAT Vocabulary List # 2

1) Disdain
2) Dogmatic
3) Egregious
4) Emulate
5) Dissipated
6) Diminution
7) Disparage
8) Effervescent
9) Elucidate
10) Distraught

Vocabulary Quiz

9/2 First Vocabulary Quiz