Grammar Exercises #1:
Simple sentences have a subject and a verb.
Some simple sentences have two of each.
Rudolph and his friends laughed and played.
Simple sentences don’t have to be boring.
She smiled icily.
Write three simple sentences.
Grammar Exercise #2:
Compound Sentences
Write a simple sentence first, and follow it with a
conjunction and another simple sentence.
You should put a comma before the conjunction, but you need
to have a complete sentence afterwards.
Many other words are conjunctions; however, some require
special punctuation rules.
Conjunctions: FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)
Write 3 compound sentences.
Grammar Exercise #3:
Semi-colons
Semi-colons link two complete sentences; the subjects of the
sentences must be closely related.
I’m not winking; I’m punctuating.
Write 3 sentences that include a semi-colon.
Grammar Exercise #4:
Dashes
Dashes – no doubt about it – can be used to add thoughts for
emphasis or to show a break in thought.
Dashes can by used like an appositive – a fancy way of
saying “renamer.”
If you remove the phrase inside the dashes, you will be left
with – oh, what are those things called? – a complete sentence.
Write three sentences that use a correctly punctuated dash.
Grammar Exercise #5:
Parentheses
Parentheses (those things you use to make smilies on the
computer) are a punctuation mark (like commas, periods, and semi-colons) that
can be used for lists – when they break the flow – long winded digressions
(like this whole sentence), appositives, and editorial comments (extraordinary,
really!).
Write 3 sentences with properly punctuated parentheses.
