1. Conventions The sixth element of the 6 + 1 Writing Traits

2. What are conventions? Spelling Punctuation Capitalization Grammar Paragraphing Having correct conventions means that the reader can pay more attention to your creative thoughts and ideas.

3. Spelling I don’t know how to spell! I am a bad speller! You just tell me how to spell it! These excuses will not work. What should you do if you don’t know how to spell a word? Look it up in the dictionary Ask a friend Look at the resources around you

4. Punctuation Know the different types of punctuation. period. comma, question mark ? exclamation point ! colon : hyphen – ellipse … parentheses ( ) How are all of these punctuation marked used?

5. Capitalization When do I use capital letters? Names of people – Christopher Columbus Words used as names – grandpa Titles used as names – President Bush Abbreviations – NFL Proper Nouns – New York City Historical Information – Civil War Organizations - Republican

6. Capitalization continued Geographic Names – Agusta, Maine Nationalities – Egyptian Languages – Spanish Titles – Freckle Juice First Words – The sky is blue. Days & Months – Monday, January Holidays – Easter Greetings – Dear Charlie, Closings – Your friend, Margo

7. Grammar Check all your sentences. One cool fall day Tom, Bill, and Bobby. One cool fall day Tom, Bill, and Bobby went to go fishing they caught only on fish all day. Do you have sentence fragments or run-on sentences? Do your subjects & verbs agree? Bill walk to the fishing hole. Tom, Bill, and Bobby loves to go fishing.

8. Paragraphing A paragraph is a group of sentences that concentrate on one topic. Indent each time you begin a new topic. Each paragraph should include a… Topic sentence – tells what the paragraph is about Body – detail sentences that back up the main idea Closing sentence – sums up the big idea

9. Conventions In order to be good at editing you need to develop an eye for mistakes. Check everything Check it again Read it out loud Have a friend check it It is hard to edit your own paper because you know what you want to say. Although that may not be what is written on the page. Conventions is the most important of the traits.

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