Revise their own writing for correct mechanics with a focus on commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, colons, and semicolons.
Arizona Academic Standards:
8.L.2.a
Common Core State Standards:
Literacy.L.8.2a
Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE):
ELAGSE8L2a
Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS):
L.8.2.a
Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards:
L.8.2a
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards:
Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break.
North Carolina - Standard Course of Study:
L.8.2.a
Use punctuation to indicate a pause or break
Apply hyphen conventions
Wisconsin Academic Standards:
L.8.6.a
punctuation to recognize a pause or break,
Arizona Academic Standards:
8.L.2.b
Common Core State Standards:
Literacy.L.8.2b
Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE):
ELAGSE8L2b
Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS):
L.8.2.b
Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards:
L.8.2b
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards:
Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.
North Carolina - Standard Course of Study:
L.8.2.b
Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission
Wisconsin Academic Standards:
L.8.6.b
ellipsis to indicate an omission, and
8th Grade Writing - Punctuation Lesson
Punctuation
Punctuation is the practice of using certain characters in writing to separate words and make the meaning clear. There are different rules for proper punctuation in the English language.
Quotes
Quotation marks are used around dialogue, or the exact words a speaker says in a text. A question mark is used before the last set of quotation marks when the speaker is asking a question.
Comma
When a sentence uses a direct address, the name of the person being addressed, or talked to, is used with a comma.
A comma always comes before the coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence.
A comma separates the coordinating adjectives (more than one adjective describing the same noun).
Apostrophe
Apostrophes are used to create a possessive, or show ownership.
In a contraction, and apostrophe takes the place of one or more letters in the original words.
Colon
A colon is used to introduce a list. The colon should always come before the first item in the list and should not be used after a verb or preposition.
Semi-colon
A semi-colon is used to join two complete thoughts. A semicolon suggests a stronger pause in a sentence than a comma. It may also be used instead of a period.
Abbreviation
Abbreviations are followed by periods.
Commas - Dashes - Ellipses
Commas, dashes, and ellipses are used to indicate a pause and to separate extra information in a sentence.
Commas
Commas are used around extra information in a sentence. They are used to indicate a pause.
Example:
Last Halloween, the three siblings, even the teenager, went trick or treating.
Dashes
A dash indicates a stronger pause than a comma. Dashes are used around extra information added into a sentence.
Example:
Jerry suggested—or should we say, insisted—that we get Chinese food for dinner.
Ellipses
An ellipsis is used to show a pause or indicate an omission. Ellipses indicate a longer pause than a comma.
Example:
“I guess . . . I could come over tonight. . . if you really want me to,” Daisy said to her mother.
8th Grade Writing - Punctuation Lesson