D.L.P. – Week FourGRADE SEVEN

Day One – Skills• Punctuation – Titles

When referring to a title when writing, it must be punctuated properly. Shorter works are placed in quotations. Shorter works include poems, short stories, songs, a chapter in a longer book, or a newspaper or magazine article. Longer works include books, names of magazines or newspapers, and movies.

• Capitalization – Proper Nouns - Places

Names of specific places must be capitalized since they are proper nouns. These could include the names of buildings and monuments. They could also include towns, cities, states, and countries.

• Confused Words – their, there, they’re

The word there is a possessive pronoun and shows ownership. The word there can be used to show a place. It can also be called an expletive when it is followed by a linking verb. They’re is a contraction made up of the words they and are.

The story Rip Van Winkle takes place in the catskill mountains in new york.

DAY ONE – SENTENCE ONE

The story “Rip Van Winkle” takes place in the Catskill Mountains in New York.

These mountains are high, and there steep cliffs are beautiful.

DAY ONE – SENTENCE TWO

These mountains are high, and their steep cliffs are beautiful.

Day Two – Skills• Punctuation – Dash

A dash is used to set off a part of sentence that may not be directly related to the sentence or may add information. Commas can also be used where dashes are used.

• Articles

The three articles are a, an, and the. A and an are called indefinite articles. A is used before singular words that begin with consonants. An is used before singular words that begin with vowel sounds. The can be used before any noun.

• Sentence Combining –Using Immersion

Two sentences can be combined simply by including the information from one sentence into the other. This helps to prevent short, choppy sentence. (Mary is tall. Mary is my friend. These can be combined by immersing one into the other and saying, “My friend Mary is tall.”)

The magical feeling of this story comes from its source a old folk tale handed down through the ages.

DAY TWO – SENTENCE ONE

The magical feeling of this story comes from its source – an old folk tale handed down through the ages.

Washington Irving became famous in Europe. He also became famous in America.

DAY TWO – SENTENCE TWO

Washington Irving became famous in Europe and America.

Day Three– Skills• Capitalization – Proper Nouns – People

Names of people are always capitalized. If the person has a title such as Mr. or Dr., the title is also capitalized. Animal’s names are also capitalized.

• Punctuation – Comma – Compound Sentence

When two independent clauses are combined with a conjunction to form a compound sentence, a comma must be placed before the conjunction.

• Contractions with Have

Contractions formed by combing a word with the helping verb have should end in ‘ve. (could’ve) This contraction sounds like the word “of.” Remember, the word “of” would never be between two other verbs. (should have gone)

Rip van winkle hated work. His wife wanted him to earn a living.

DAY THREE – SENTENCE ONE

Rip Van Winkle hated work, but his wife wanted him to earn a living.

Rip should of listened to his wife because the money would of helped his family.

DAY THREE – SENTENCE TWO

Rip should’ve listened to his wife because the money would’ve helped his family.

Day Four– Skills• Punctuation – Apostrophes in Possession

An apostrophe is used to show possession or ownership. If the word showing ownership is singular, then the apostrophe is placed before the s. (boy’s) If the word is plural and ends in an s, then the apostrophe is placed after the s. (groups’) However, if the plural word does not end in an s, then the apostrophe is placed before the s. (children’s)

Joint possession means more than one person owns something. If one thing is owned by more than one person, the apostrophe and s appear only on the final person in the group. (Bob and Mark’s car)

• Run-on Sentences

Run-on sentences occur when two complete thoughts run together without proper connection or punctuation. Run-ons can be corrected in one of three ways. First, simply separate the two sentences with proper end punctuation. However, if the two sentences can be connected by meaning, connect them with a comma and the proper conjunction. Finally, the two sentences can have a semicolon placed between them in the clauses relate closely in meaning. Note that the sentence following the semicolon would not begin with a capital unless that word is a proper noun or the pronoun I.

• Punctuation – Comma – Appositives

If an appositive is a single word, it is the writer’s choice to place comas around it or not, but a multiple word appositive must be set off from the sentence with commas.

Rips only friend was his dog he was as henpecked as his master.

DAY FOUR – SENTENCE ONE

Rip’s only friend was his dog. He was as henpecked as his master.

Rip Van Winkle an unsuccessful farmer became famous for his adventures.

DAY FOUR – SENTENCE TWO

Rip Van Winkle, an unsuccessful farmer, became famous for his adventures.

Day Five– Skills• Sentence Fragment

A fragment occurs because a sentence is missing a vital part, a subject or a verb. Correct it by adding the missing part. A second way that a fragment occurs is that it is not a complete thought. Perhaps, it is only a dependent clause. Correct this type of fragment by adding an independent clause.

• Verb Usage – To know

The verb know is an action verb that is irregular. In the past, the verb changes to knew, and in the past participle it becomes known.

• Punctuation – Comma – Compound Sentence

When two independent clauses are combined with a conjunction to form a compound sentence, a comma must be placed before the conjunction.

• Punctuation – Exclamation Points

An exclamation point is used to show strong emotion. It can be used to end a sentence or after an interjection.

Rip went into the mountains. To get away from his wife.

DAY FIVE – SENTENCE ONE

Rip went into the mountains to get away from his wife.

We all knowed Rip would get a big surprise but what a surprise he got.

DAY FIVE – SENTENCE TWO

We all knew Rip would get a big surprise, but what a surprise he got!