take you to a printing office or to a publisher's to see how newspapers and books are made. You will then see where proofreading is a business. When you go to class, exchange papers and see if you can find any errors in marking sentences. EXERCISE 8 DISCOVERING AMPUTATED PARTS OF SENTENCES There is another kind of mistake that you are likely to make; namely, cutting a part of a sentence off and writing this amputated member as if it were a whole, sound sentence. (What do we mean when we say a man's arm is amputated ?) What amputated parts of sentences do you find in the following incident? With which sentence, the one before or the one after, does each part belong? ALICE AND THE RABBIT Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank. And of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book which her sister was reading. But it had no pictures or conversations in it. Suddenly a white rabbit, with a pink eye, ran close by her. When the rabbit took a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, and looked at it, and hurried on. Alice started to her feet. For it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat pocket or a watch to take out of it. Burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after the rabbit. And was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment, down went Alice after it. Never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped down suddenly. Alice had not a moment to stop before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well. EXERCISE 9 CORRECTING ERRORS IN WRITING AMPUTATED MEMBERS OF SENTENCES AS SENTENCES (COPYING) Copy the paragraph about Alice and the rabbit, joining amputated members to the sentences they belong with. What mark should you now get on an exercise of this kind? EXERCISE 10 WRITING A STORY WITH NO AMPUTATED MEMBERS OF SENTENCES Who is Alice? Do you know some of the things she saw and did some of her experiences down the rabbithole? If you do, plan the telling of one or two of these experiences. Write out one of the little stories about Alice that you have planned; or else plan and write some other incident, something that you have read, or done, or imagined. Remember to proofread your composition, taking especial pains to find and correct any amputated part of a sentence. Exchange papers and check up each other's errors. Make a list of all the words misspelled on these papers, and do not forget to enter them on the class list and the individual lists. See how good a record your class can make. It would be interesting for one or two to write their compositions on the blackboard, so that the whole class can criticize the same theme. Give your story a good title, definite and interesting (see p. 14). Observe the following rule for capitalizing (see, for example, p. 27). Rule A. Capitalize the first and every important word in the title of a composition. EXERCISE 11 SEEING THAT EVERY SENTENCE IS EITHER DECLARATIVE OR INTERROGATIVE Make a sentence that tells a fact; another that tells your opinion about something; another that tells somebody to do something; another that tells a wish of yours; another that asks a question. Can you think of a sentence that does not either tell or ask something? A declarative sentence is a sentence that tells, or states, something. An interrogative sentence is a sentence that asks a question. What three definitions do you now know? (If you know how to look up the derivation of words in the dictionary, find out from what Latin words the English words declarative and interrogative come. Many words have more meaning and interest when we know the roots from which they have grown.) Point out the two parts of each definition above (see p. 30). You doubtless already know the rules for punctuating declarative and interrogative sentences; but here they are again. (What is the difference between a rule and a definition?) Rule 1.1 Close every declarative sentence with a period. Rule 2. Close every interrogative sentence with a question mark. There are exceptions to these rules, in the case of exclamations, but we need not discuss those for the present. Rule B. Begin every sentence with a capital letter. 1 Rules for punctuation are numbered; rules for capitalization are lettered. These rules are collected in Appendix C. EXERCISE 12 MARKING DECLARATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE As someone reads to you the groups of words below decide whether each is a sentence and why. Tell whether each sentence is declarative or interrogative. Then copy the sentences only, marking properly the beginning and the end of each. Words which are here italicized in print should be underscored in writing. What words shall you underscore? In copying should you now be satisfied with less than one hundred per cent for accuracy and correctness? 1. as it is half past nine, we shall begin the lesson 2. who in the class knows what a sentence is 3. some people misspell a simple word like sentence 5. because the sentence is declarative 6. into what two classes may sentences be divided 7. when you are sure that you can recognize these two kinds of sentences 8. the word declare means to state or tell 9. notice carefully how declarative is spelled 10. the word interrogative means asking, questioning 11. be sure that you can spell interrogative 12. how many r's are in the word 13. put on your thinking-cap, and tell what the words declaraiion and interrogation mean. (How many sentences could you break this one into? Are these sentences separate or joined? What is the use of and?) 14. Mary, give definitions of declarative and interrogative sentences 15. you have had a good lesson 16. the class is dismissed EXERCISE 13 SUMMING UP WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED OF SENTENCES Tell all that you know about sentences, under the following headings (1) Definition of Sentence; (2) Kinds of Sentences; (3) Marking Sentences; (4) Errors in Writing Sentences. Is there anyone in the class who has made a perfect score in recognizing and marking sentences? This is a matter in which everyone who is educated must be perfect not once merely, but always, in everything that he writes. Form the habit now. |