Friday, November 4th, 2016: Practice with Semi-colons

November 4th, 2016
Today's Lesson is about practice with semi-colons.



(1) You will be given a brief overview of how to use semi-colons from The Oatmeal (and a handout of that information from the same website to refer back to).


(2) After the class reviews the basic information provided there, you will be given a worksheet to practice using semi-colons. You will sit at your desk silently and rewrite each sentence with the semi-colon inserted into the proper place. You may have to replace a comma with a semi-colon, depending on the sentence.

Essential Question:

How can one use semi-colons to punctuate for clarity in thought?

Today’s exercise is all about semi-colons. Semi-colons are often avoided because people don’t get much practice with them, but they can be very useful to writers.

First, an overview of how to use semi-colons, from ,

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

Semicolon practice: Read each of the following sentences carefully. Rewrite each of the following sentences by inserting a semicolon in the appropriate place. Some of them have a comma where a semicolon should be, others do not. When you have finished, turn in this worksheet for a grade.

1. Pizza is one of my favorite foods, I would probably eat it every day if I could.

2. There were six sets of socks that's twelve total.

3. When a poet wants to draw your attention to a certain idea or image, they'll often use figurative language, poets love figurative language.

4. The score was tied the game went into overtime.

5. The World Series had begun, however, we were still stuck in traffic.

6. Martin Luther King did not intend to become a preacher, originally he wanted to be a lawyer.

7. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, try a good diet, if you are serious about your goal, you should be successful.

8. Many parents are in favor of school uniforms, they feel that the uniforms develop a sense of community among students.

9. John is a former police officer, he now stays home with his children.

10. The cousins loved to play video games, they stayed up all night to get to the next level.

11.  If you trim the tree, it will look better, if you chop it down, we will miss it.

12. Time passes very quickly these days it seems as if you were here just yesterday.

13. Professor Brown has left the laboratory, you may still be able to reach her through email.

14. A comma is used to insert a pause a colon inserts a longer pause

15. Throwing his arms into the air, Mike looked absolutely dumbfounded, so he stood up, knocking all of the materials on the floor, and left the building.

16. He is not doing well in school, however, everyone hopes that he will be able to graduate.

17. Some sentences need semicolons others do not.

18.   Her mother, an artist, held her own show, her aunt, also an artist, could not attend the exhibit.

19. Go straight until the second stop light, turn left when you see the house with blue shutters.

20. We didn't attend the play, besides, we had heard that all the good seats were taken.