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Oral work. The topic sentence in the first paragraph is:

A few facts about the composition of the inside of the earth have been fairly accurately determined.

What facts are given in support of the topic sentence? These facts may be called details.

What is the topic sentence of the second paragraph? What details are given about the topic sentence?

Written work. Choose one of the topic sentences listed below and write several facts about it.

1. There was rain everywhere.
2. There is dust everywhere.
3. There was snow everywhere.
4. There are flowers everywhere.

5. There were mosquitoes everywhere.

6. Life in the city has many advantages not enjoyed in the country.

7. Life in the country has many advantages not enjoyed in the city.

8. His masquerade costume was the funniest I have ever

seen.

9. His suit was too large for him.

Your class-
Of course

Read your paragraph before the class. mates will criticize your work as before. you will improve your paragraph all you can before you read it to them..

Bring to your class your textbook in history. Find in the index the pages on which the following subjects are found. Study paragraphs assigned by your teacher concerning these topics. Choose your topic sentence with great care. Be prepared to tell the class what you have found without looking at your book. Then

look at your book and see if you have given the complete information.

From your history book:

1. The Making of Our Flag

2. The Battle of Princeton

3. The First United States Bank

4. The Invention of the Cotton Gin

5. The "Clermont"

6. The Centennial

7. Territorial Growth of the United States

II

TEST DRILL-THE PARAGRAPH

1. What is a topic sentence? Where is it usually found?

2. What is meant by the phrase, "stick to the point"?

3. Does the expression, "Save the best till the last," apply to paragraph writing? Explain.

4. In what way is a topic sentence expanded into a paragraph?

5. Write a topic sentence about a pet of yours. Expand the sentence into a paragraph.

Assignment for fast workers. Copy five or six headlines from a newspaper. Write paragraphs suggested by these headlines, being careful to introduce the three w's in the first sentence as real reporters are told to do. Compare your paragraphs with the ones under the headlines in the paper. Improve your own paragraphs by "borrowing" vivid words and apt phrases from the

newspaper. (Look up the meaning of the words apt and vivid.)

7. COMMA IN A SERIES

Find the word series in your dictionary. What does it mean?

Read the series in the following sentences:

1. A poor, forlorn, old soldier sat on the step.

2. A bomb fell near the wagon train, throwing up tons of earth, scattering war supplies in every direction, and killing two horses.

3. The cattle, mules, and horses stirred nervously.

Where are the commas placed in these sentences?

Rule: The members of a series of words or phrases must be separated from each other by commas.

You will always be able to read the word and or or where commas should be placed in a series.

Notice also that the comma is used before the conjunction between the last two members of the series. When conjunctions are used before all members of a series, no commas are used.

1. He was old and tired and shabby.

2. He was old, tired, and shabby.

Exercise. Punctuate the following sentences:

1. He tore down the street around the corner and across the ball field with my glove in his mouth

2. Make lists of the chairs tables beds and bureaus on this floor

3. Tell me when you found it how you found it and where you found it

4. You may have the red pencil the brown pencil or the striped one

5. He limped sorrowfully down the road through the fields and into the woods

6. From the car window I could see the blue Ohio the whitewashed tree trunks the group in camp and the tents

7. Shall you buy a collie a sheep dog or an Irish setter 8. His lunch consisted of half a loaf of bread a large dill pickle two rather black bananas and a bottle of strong black coffee

9. Remember that each first line of each paragraph must be indented one inch every word correctly spelled and every comma where it belongs

10. Try raising your arms above your head rising on your toes and inhaling while I count ten

Write five sentences illustrating the use of the comma in a series. Read each sentence over, saying "and" or "or" where you have placed commas. If this destroys the meaning of your sentence, the series is incorrectly punctuated.

Study this paragraph and be prepared to tell where the capitals and punctuation marks should be. Keep your mind on the sentence idea. Test each sentence when you have finished, then go back and test yourself to see if you are right.

ICHABOD CRANE

in this by-place of nature there abode a worthy wight by the name of ichabod crane who sojourned in sleepy hollow for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity he was a native of connecticut the name of crane was not inapplicable to his person he was tall but exceedingly lank with narrow shoulders long arms and legs hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves and feet that might have served for shovels his head was small and flat at the top with huge ears, large green glassy eyes and a long snipe nose

Adapted

-Washington Irving

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You know how to use the dictionary to find the meanings of words, and to pronounce words according to the principal accent. You have learned to use the guide words at the top of the dictionary page to help you to find words more quickly. You have learned to use the key at the foot of the dictionary page to aid you to give the correct sounds to letters in unfamiliar words. Find the correct pronunciation of the following words:

pronounce
pronunciation

rinse
catch

guardian
theater

history
often

Make up your mind to pronounce these words correctly in school and out. Correct pronunciation in the English period in school will not help you unless you practice outside of class what you learn in the classroom. Use these words correctly in oral sentences. Learn to spell them:

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Be sure to write in your personal spelling list any words you have to look up for spelling. Then master your list. It is a sign of mental laziness to have to look up the spelling of the same word again and again.

I thought it was he.

They said it was we.

Do you think it was they?

2. Common Errors Corrected

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