mini assignment

Task

1. Highlight each of the incorrect punctuation marks (. , ; ‘) in the passage below.

2. Rewrite the passage with the punctuation marks corrected.

3. Explain the grammar rule of five of the punctuation marks.

Due

by May 5th at 11:59pm.

Lesson

Punctuation includes semi-colons, apostrophes, commas, and periods. Punctuation marks helps readers understand written language—so that sentence-level meaning is clear. Further, non-native speakers frequently have troubles recognizing and understanding punctuation. Knowing how to correctly use punctuation is important because of their cultural capital; that is, because so many native-English speakers know how to use punctuation, a non-native speaker misuses punctuation, it looks worse than them misspelling a complex word. Moreover, knowing how punctuation works is important so they are not misused (which makes the writer look ignorant). Below is a passage with ten incorrect or missing punctuation marks. If you’re having difficulty identifying them, try reading the passage aloud: you may hear them easier than identify them in print.

Passage

[Note: use the Highlight tool to highlight the incorrect punctuation marks or where punctuation is missing. Pay attention to the dependent clause rule that we worked on in class.]

When I first brought my cat Sally home from the Humane Society she was a mangy, pitiful animal. She was so thin that you could count her vertebrae just by looking at her. Apparently she was declawed by her previous owners. Then abandoned or lost. Since she couldn’t hunt she nearly starved. Not only that, but she had an abscess on one hip. The vets at the Humane Society had drained it but it was still scabby and without fur. She had a terrible cold too she was sneezing and sniffling and her meow was just a hoarse squeak. And she'd lost half her tail somewhere, instead of tapering gracefully, it had a bony knob at the end. Although she loved to cuddle she was afraid of people she would run away; if a friend came over to my house. Its sad how mistreated she was, I wish that she had a better life before she came to me.

Rewrite

[Note: copy-paste the above passage below and rewrite the punctuation marks correctly.]

Correction

[Note: Select five punctuation marks from the passage and write them and their grammar rule below. If you’re having trouble, exercise your Google-Fu. Cite any sources you use to explain the punctuation grammar rule.]

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.