Practice Makes Perfect: Exploring Grammar - Muschla Gary Robert 2010

Bug-Eating Mammal
Proofreading for mistakes in grammar
Usage and proofreading

When you are proofreading to find grammar mistakes, follow the guidelines below.

1. The first word in a sentence, all proper nouns, the pronoun I, and all proper adjectives are capitalized.

2. All sentences have correct ending punctuation:

✵ Periods for declarative and imperative sentences

✵ Question marks for interrogative sentences

✵ Exclamation points for exclamatory sentences

3. Commas are used:

✵ To separate items in a list

✵ Before conjunctions in compound sentences

✵ To set off introductory words and phrases

✵ Between city and state

✵ To separate the day from the year in dates

✵ After direct address

✵ To set off quotations

4. Apostrophes are used to show possessive nouns and to show the letters left out in contractions.

5. Colons are used for time and to set off a list.

6. Hyphens are used to connect some compound words and to break words into syllables.

7. Quotation marks are used:

✵ For the titles of stories, songs, and poems

✵ For the chapters of books

✵ For the direct words of speakers

8. Italics are used:

✵ For the titles of books, TV shows, movies, and plays

✵ For the names of newspapers and magazines

9. Subjects agree with their verbs.

10. Subject, object, and possessive pronouns are used correctly.

11. The tenses of verbs are correct.

12. All words are used correctly.

9.5 Bug-Eating Mammal

This scaly, short-legged mammal lives in parts of Africa and Asia. It comes out at night and catches bugs with a sticky two-foot-long tongue. What is this animal’s name?

To answer the question, read each sentence below. Find the sentence’s grammatical mistake. There is no more than one mistake in each sentence. Choose your answers from the choices listed after the sentences. Write the letter of each answer in the space above its sentence number at the bottom of the page. If there are no mistakes, write the letter for correct. Not all of the answers will be used.

1. Many strange creatures’ live on our planet.

2. Some animals live on the land but others live in water.

3. Elephants live in Africa and Asia, the world’s biggest Continents.

4. Polar bears live in the Arctic.

5. Do you know if polar bears live in Antarctica.

6. “No, said Jessica. Polar bears don’t live in Antarctica.

7. “I watched a TV show titled Bears of the North last night,” Robert said.

8. “It was on at eight PM.,” he said.

Answers

I. Capitalization

G. Period

L. Question Mark

O. Comma

N. Apostrophe

U. Colon

P. Italics

A. Correct

N. Quotation Marks