HW6

Hyphens and Dashes Dire c t e d L e arning Ac t iv it y — P unc t uat ion & M e c hanic s 03

Essential Question What are the differences between a hyphen and a dash?

Purpose Upon completion of this activity, students will be able to explain the differences between hyphens and

dashes and will be able to correct errors in hyphen and dash use in a short passage.

This DLA should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Before You Begin To complete this DLA, you will need to view the video “Hyphens and Dashes” from the Texas A & M

University’s University Writing Center and respond to the following about the video:

1) How are hyphens used?

2) How are dashes used?

3) Name the three ways you might see a hyphen used with a modifier.

4) Hyphens are used ONLY when the modifier comes [BLANK] the noun. They are never used

[BLANK] the noun or when the modifying word ends in [BLANK].

5) What are the two types of dashes?

6) The [BLANK] dash is used very specifically: for numerical ranges such as years, months, and

times, or when talking about relationships.

7) The [BLANK] dash (created with two hyphens next to each other) is used to [BLANK].

Exercise Below you will find a passage with incorrect use of dashes and hyphens. Find and correct these errors,

which include dashes and hyphens used incorrectly as well as missing dashes and/or hyphens.

This semester, I am taking an art-history class, American art from colonial times to the Civil War.

This covers the years 1600-1870. So far, the course has been interesting. My favorite artists of

that time are the Peale family they are the best who painted in the 1700s. Many of the most-

famous paintings of that time can be attributed to them. For example, the father, Charles

Wilson Peale, painted fifty eight portraits of George Washington. I recently took my sixteen year

old niece to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where many Peale-family paintings are housed, and

we learned that the Peale family brought geraniums to America can you believe it! We enjoyed

looking at Rubens Peale with a Geranium painted by his brother Rembrandt Peale from 1801,

which shows a thoughtful looking young man in wire rimmed glasses resting his hand on a pot

containing a red-geranium plant.

Though I am enjoying studying the Peales, I am looking forward to studying African—American

painters next. I hadn’t heard of Joshua Johnson, who lived in Baltimore (1763-1864) and was the

first person-of-color to make a living as a painter. Johnson’s work has been compared to the

work of one member of the Peale family, Charles Peale Polk, who was of all things the nephew

of Charles Wilson Peale. However, Johnson’s work is considered more sophisticated than that of

Polk, who was unable to make-a-living as a painter. Johnson, on the other hand, was successful

in his time as a painter of famous Marylanders.

Review your answers with an instructor or tutor in the Virtual Writing & Reading Center. Be sure you can

answer the essential question above.