7th Grade Inexcusable Errors

Dialogue:
RULE #1: A direct quotation begins with a capital letter.

Examples:
o Jimmy shouted, See you at the game! o Is it true?" asked Cindy. RULE #2: When a quotation is interrupted into two parts with words like he asked or the teacher demanded, the second part begins with a lower case letter.

Examples:
o What are some of the things, Mrs. Baskin inquired, that make school so much fun? o One thing I like, replied Sarah, is recess! RULE #3: When writing dialogue, all punctuation marks at the end of the quotation go inside the quotation marks.

Examples:
o Let's visit the museum, suggested Samantha. o Jon replied, Didn't we go there last weekend ? o But when we did, Beth added, we didn't see the Ancient Egyptian exhibit.

RULE #4: Make a new paragraph (indent) when a different person begins to speak.

Examples:
o "Last night, I dreamt that I ate a giant marshmallow," Kevin said. o "Was that anything like the dream you had about eating your way through a mountain of fruit cocktail?" asked Suzy. o "Scarier," Kevin explained. "This time I woke up and my pillow was gone." RULE #5: Where there is a quote inside of a quote, use a set of single quotes ( ) for the dialogue on the inside of the quote.

Examples:
o He said, Jennifer asked Justin, Will you give me a ride home? o A more complex example: o The doctor explained to the mother, Your child told me, Doctor, my mother always told me to never climb trees, but I didnt listen. I did climb the tree and I did fall. OTHER REMINDERS: o -Always make it clear who is speaking in the dialogue. o -Try to avoid using the word said repeatedly

Possessive Nouns
Rule #1: Making singular nouns possessive o Add an apostrophe + s to most singular nouns and to plural nouns that do not end in s. o Youll use this rule the most, so pay particular attention to it. English has some words that are plural but do not add an s. Words like children, sheep, women and men are such words. These plural words are treated as if they were singular words when making noun possessives.

Examples:

Singular nouns: kittens toy, Joes car, MLBs ruling

Plurals not ending in s: womens dresses, sheeps pasture, childrens toys

Rule #2: Making plural nouns possessive o Add an apostrophe only to plural nouns that already end in s. o You dont need to add an extra s to plural nouns that already end with the letter s. Simply tuck the apostrophe onto the end to indicate that the plural noun is now a plural possessive noun.

Examples:

Companies workers Horses stalls Countries army

Capitalization
Capitalize the Following: 1. The first word of a sentence 2. The first word in each line of poetry 3. The first and all other important words in the greeting of a letter 4. The first word in a closing of a letter 5. The first, last, and other main words in titles of chapters, stories, poems, reports, songs, books, movies, and radio and television programs 6. The word I 7. A proper adjective 8. Initials 9. Titles of persons (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dr.)

10. Abbreviations (P.O., Dr., Rd.) 11. Titles of high government officials 12. A proper noun 13. Words like Mother, Sister, Uncle when used in place of with names 14. Names of schools, clubs, organizations, and buildings 15. Names of streets, avenues, boulevards, and roads 16. Names of rivers, oceans, mountains, and regions 17. Names of cities, towns, counties, states, countries, and continents 18. Names of days, months, holidays, and other special days 19. Names of businesses and special products 20.Names of languages, nationalities, and special groups 21. Names of political parties 22.Names of government departments 23.Names for religious figures 24.Names of churches and religious denominations 25.Names of historical events and documents 26.Names of airlines, ships, and railroads 27.Names of magazines and newspapers 28.The first word of a heading and subheading in outlines Do Not Capitalize:

1. north, south, east, or west when they refer to direction 2. Seasons of the year 3. the names of any courses of study unless they are languages 4. mother, father, sister, or brother

Spelling
o To practice spelling, please access the following website. www.spellingcity.com

Homonym/homophones
o Words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings are homonyms/homophones. o Homonyms offer spelling challenges but also opportunities for wordplay.

Examples:
there, theyre, their to, two, too ate/eight be/bee bear/bare blew/blue dear/deer one/won

Complete sentences
Be sure to restate the question in the answer.
Examples:

Question: What is the capital of Michigan?

Complete sentence: The capital of Michigan is Lansing.