Pennington Publishing Blog

Commas in Letters

Commas in Letters                   

Play the quick video lesson HERE and click the upper left back arrow to return to this lesson.            

Common Core Language Standard 2

Teachers teach students two forms of letters: the friendly letter and the business letter. Each has its own special greetings and closings. A friendly letter is personal and informal. A business letter may be personal or impersonal; however, it certainly is formal.

Today’s mechanics lesson is on commas in letter greetings and closings. Remember that there are two basic kinds of letters: friendly and business.

Now let’s read the grammar and usage lesson and study the examples.

Place a comma after the greeting and after the closing in a friendly letter. Examples: Dear Mom, and Love, Place a colon after the greeting and a comma after the closing in a business letter.

Examples: To Whom It May Concern: and Sincerely,

Now circle or highlight what is right and revise what is wrong according to grammar and usage lesson.

Practice: He signed his business letter “Sincerely,” and his friendly letter “Yours truly,”. His business letter greeting was “To Whom It May Concern:” and his friendly letter was just “Hello”.

Let’s check the Practice Answers.

Grammar and Usage Practice Answers: He signed his business letter “Sincerely,” and his friendly letter “Yours truly,”. His business letter greeting was “To Whom It May Concern:” and his friendly letter was just “Hello,”.

Now let’s apply what we have learned. 

Writing Application: Write your own short business letter.

*****

Pennington Publishing Grammar Programs

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing comma rules, Grammar Lessons, Language Conventions, writing openers

Commas with Dates

Commas with Dates             

Play the quick video lesson HERE and click the upper left back arrow to return to this lesson.   

Common Core Language Standard 2

The comma rules withe dates are pretty straightforward. The only challenge is dates appear in the middle of a sentence or as the objects of a prepositional phrase. Come to think of it, maybe they’re tougher than I thought.

Now let’s read the mechanics lesson and study the examples.

When a date has two or more numerical parts, use a comma to separate those parts. Use a comma after the last date or number unless it is placed at the end of the sentence. Example: She said the date was May 14, 2015, and then she left.

If the parts of the date serve as the object of a prepositional phrase, no comma is needed. Example: On May 15 she quit her job.

Now circle or highlight what is right and revise what is wrong according to mechanics lesson.

Practice: Tonya is scheduled to graduate from high school on Friday May 29, 2015.

Let’s check the Practice Answers.

Mechanics Practice Answers: Tonya is scheduled to graduate from high school on Friday,May 29, 2015.

Now let’s apply what we have learned. 

Writing Application: Write your own sentence using today’s complete date in the middle of sentence.

*****

Pennington Publishing Grammar Programs

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing comma rules, Grammar Lessons, writing openers

When Not to Use Commas

When Not to Use Commas       

Play the quick video lesson HERE and click the upper left back arrow to return to this lesson.

Common Core Language Standard 2

Commas are the most over-used punctuation. Placing a comma incorrectly is certainly more noticeable than leaving one out. So, would the best advice be “When in doubt, leave it out”? Maybe. However, it certainly is best to know both rules for proper and improper comma usage.

Today’s mechanics lesson is on when not to use commas. Remember that knowing when or where not to use punctuation is just as important as knowing when or where to use punctuation. Most writers overuse commas. Commas used in the wrong places can create confusion for the reader.

Now let’s read the mechanics lesson and study the examples.

Don’t use a comma to separate a subject from its verb. Example: Pete in Colorado, is a friend of mine. Now X-out the comma.

Also, don’t use a comma to separate a compound subjects, compound objects, or compound predicates. Examples: Pete in Iowa, and Jim in Ohio went to see Tom, and Ben. I sent a check, and mailed a card to Pete. Now X-out the commas.

Now circle or highlight what is right and revise what is wrong according to mechanics lesson.

Practice: Toby with his quick reflexes, and Bryan with his quick, powerful kick gave their smart fullbacks and talented, goal-keeper quite a match.

Let’s check the Practice Answers.

Mechanics Practice Answers: Toby with his quick reflexes and Bryan with his quick, powerful kick gave their smart fullbacks and talented goal-keeper quite a match.

Now let’s apply what we have learned. 

Writing Application: Write your own sentence using a compound subject, compound predicate, and compound object.

*****

Pennington Publishing Grammar Programs

Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics (Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and High School) are full-year, traditional, grade-level grammar, usage, and mechanics programs with plenty of remedial practice to help students catch up while they keep up with grade-level standards. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep lessons in print or interactive Google slides with a fun secret agent theme. Simple sentence diagrams, mentor texts, video lessons, sentence dictations. Plenty of practice in the writing context. Includes biweekly tests and a final exam.

Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Interactive Notebook (Grades 4‒8) is a full-year, no prep interactive notebook without all the mess. Twice-per-week, 30-minute, no prep grammar, usage, and mechanics lessons, formatted in Cornell Notes with cartoon response, writing application, 3D graphic organizers (easy cut and paste foldables), and great resource links. No need to create a teacher INB for student make-up work—it’s done for you! Plus, get remedial worksheets, biweekly tests, and a final exam.

Syntax in Reading and Writing is a function-based, sentence-level syntax program, designed to build reading comprehension and increase writing sophistication. The 18 parts of speech, phrases, and clauses lessons are each leveled from basic (elementary) to advanced (middle and high school) and feature 5 lesson components (10–15 minutes each): 1. Learn It!  2. Identify It!  3. Explain It! (analysis of challenging sentences) 4. Revise It! (kernel sentences, sentence expansion, syntactic manipulation) 5. Create It! (Short writing application with the syntactic focus in different genre).

Get the Diagnostic Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics Assessments, Matrix, and Final Exam FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics, Writing comma rules, Grammar Lessons, Language Conventions Lessons, writing openers