HW: Proofreading the letter

Here are the directions for HW. Below, I've included the "good copy" if you get stumped.

DIRECTIONS
- Proofread this mess of a letter. Circle errors and label them with the commandment that needs to be applied.

-Use the "magic brackets"  [       ] when you think you can delete strange or unwanted phrases.


-You may reference the good copy if you're stuck, but try your best to do this with just your brain.


Here's the "good version" of the letter:

Hello 7^th graders.

You are in an English class. You may think this is a strange concept, given that you speak the language every day. This, however, is a class that is not designed to teach you basic language skills you naturally have. That would be quite the waste of time. This class, rather, aims to give you greater control and power over your native language. Why might this be important, you ask? The answer is quite simple: the more you understand how your language works, the better you communicate with the world around you. Don’t tell me communication is not something you value.

The past few weeks have been quite telling in regards to your writing abilities. I have been both impressed and, yes, a bit discouraged. Many of you are writing beautiful ideas, but you are careless with the vehicle that delivers those ideas: language. While some are making understandable errors, others are making mistakes that seventh grade writers should really be avoiding. We, as a class, need to pledge to be more prideful and thoughtful with the use of our language, and listed below are several items that will help us achieve this goal:

1. We will use complete sentences, avoiding run-ons and sentence fragments.

2. We will capitalize the first letter in each sentence, and always capitalize “I.”

3. We will try to avoid first-person (I, me, my) in formal writing (essays, short response

 to literature, in-class assessments, etc.).

4. We will use apostrophes appropriately

5.We will reread our work out loud, making sure we have written exactly what we mean.

6. We will proofread our work to eliminate words that don’t belong, or to include words that we accidentally left out.

7. We will try to be efficient with our use of language, without wordy ramblings, or having choppy, short sentences.

8. We will know when to use their, there, or they’re.

9. We will spell all words correctly when using a word-processor (it tells you, for heaven’s sakes!).

While I recognize some of these are more challenging than others, we must be mindful of all of them moving forward. The more we think about our writing and what we need to improve, the sooner we improve. I for one cannot wait to see the leaps you will make with writing this year!