Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n By Zac Kieser and Donna Reish<\/p>\n Read More<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to another Punctuation Puzzle! Yep…a puzzle that you solve by putting in the correct punctuation and words\/usage fixes–along with explanations and answers about each error! Perfect for students and teachers alike! Today’s Puzzle is about Proper Nouns and Quotations… and it uses an interesting sentence from one of our Write-for-a-Month\/Write On books about Pinocchio. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":" <\/p>\n By Zac Kieser and Donna Reish<\/p>\n \n\nOh, proper nouns and quotations. Where do I start to explain the myriad of difficulties that students (and adults!) have with these. Am I starting to sound more like Lamenting Lady than Language Lady in the openings to these Punctuation Puzzles? If so, I am sorry! When you have taught fifty to one hundred students (in second through twelfth grades) English\/language arts every semester for nearly twenty years (and you write books and products for them literally every year for nearly two decades as well), you just start to really feel sorry for these precious people who have to navigate the grammar waters with all of its exceptions and varying rules. (Sympathetic, she is!?)\n\n\n\n \n\nI also feel compelled to share with parents and teachers what I have seen in teaching and writing materials with these rules\u2014so you can understand how the exceptions and rules affect kids trying to learn them (to add to your list of things you have noted!).\n\n \n a. A common noun,<\/em> as you probably know, is a word that names a person, place, <\/em>or thing.<\/em><\/p>\n b. A proper noun,<\/em> however, names a specific<\/strong> person, place, <\/em>or thing.<\/em> For example,<\/p>\n \n\nThe puppet<\/strong> sprinted down the street. (puppet<\/strong> is a common noun\u2014that is, it does not name a specific<\/em> puppet.)\n\nPinocchio<\/strong> sprinted down the street. [Pinocchio<\/strong> is a proper noun\u2014it does name a specific puppet (Pinocchio).]\n\n \n\n2. Proper nouns are always<\/strong> capitalized. For example, we always write Pinocchio <\/em>like this, never like this: pinocchio<\/em>.\n\n \n\n3. Normally, it is fairly easy to tell the difference between common and proper nouns (exceptions notwithstanding!). However, in the case of our sentence, we are dealing with a word\u2014father<\/strong>--that can be either common or proper, depending on how it is used. This is significant since we need to know whether to capitalize it or not.\n\n \n\n4. We can identify whether father<\/strong> should be capitalized by whether it is referring to a specific<\/strong> father or not.<\/em>\n\n\u201cMy father<\/strong> would be happy if I brought back more money,\u201d Pinocchio thought.\n\n\u201cI know Father<\/strong> would be happy if I brought back more money,\u201d Pinocchio thought.\n\n \n\n5. On the surface, it\u2019s hard to tell which one is a common and which one is a proper noun.\n a. However, in the 1st<\/strong> sentence, the pronoun my<\/em> modifies father<\/em>.<\/p>\n i. This pronoun is telling us the specific<\/strong> father we are talking about; without the pronoun, the word father<\/em> would not be referring to a specific<\/strong> father.<\/p>\n ii. Therefore, father<\/em> is not a proper noun in this sentence.<\/p>\n b. In the 2nd<\/strong> sentence, father<\/em> is by itself, but it is not<\/em> a common noun. Why not?<\/p>\n i. Well, the question we have to ask is, \u201cDoes the word father<\/em> in this sentence refer to a specific<\/strong> father?\u201d<\/p>\n ii. If you answered yes, you are correct. It refers to Pinocchio\u2019s father, Geppetto.<\/p>\n iii. In fact, we could replace the word father<\/em> with the name Geppetto<\/em>, and we would get the same meaning<\/p>\n \n\n\u201cFather<\/strong> would be happy if I brought back more money,\u201d Pinocchio thought.\n\n\u201cGeppetto<\/strong> would be happy if I brought back more money,\u201d Pinocchio thought.\n\n \n\nTherefore, we capitalize father<\/em> in this sentence since the word is a proper noun in this case.\n\n \n\nTRICKY TRICK: If you can put the person\u2019s name in place of the title (in place of father in this case), and it still makes sense, capitalize the title.<\/strong><\/em>\n\n \n\n6. In our puzzle sentence, \u201cListen to your Father, Pinocchio!\u201d, the cricket pleaded.<\/em><\/strong>, Father is capitalized like it is a proper noun.\n a. However, is it actually a proper noun? No, because the pronoun your<\/em> is explaining the specific<\/strong> father we are referring to (Pinocchio\u2019s father, Geppetto).<\/p>\n b. Therefore, the word father<\/em> in this case is not a proper noun; it is a common noun and does not need to be capitalized.<\/p>\n \n\n\u201cListen to your father, Pinocchio!\u201d, the cricket pleaded.<\/strong><\/em>\n\nTRICKY TRICK: You can\u2019t say \u201cListen to your Geppetto\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\n\n \n a. In this case, we replace the comma with the exclamation point or question mark.<\/strong>\nb. Otherwise, we would not know that the sentence was supposed to be an exclamation or a question.\nc. Let\u2019s observe how this appears in a sentence:\n\n \u201cHa!\u201d<\/span> Pinocchio scoffed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is my father now?\u201d<\/span> Pinocchio wondered.<\/p>\n d. So, in the case of our sentence, should there be a comma after the exclamation point? No, the comma is replaced by the exclamation point, not just moved to the right.<\/p>\nThat leaves us with our final, fully corrected sentence:<\/strong><\/em>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Punctuation-puzzle-proper-nouns-and-quotations-with-pinocchio.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\nWhen it comes to Proper Nouns and Quotations (capitalization for emphasis), here are some of the tough scenarios:<\/h3>\n
\n \t
So what do we do? How do we help kids learn these exceptions, \u201crule breakers,\u201d and more?<\/h3>\nWith great patience and love for kids first of all! ?\n\n \n\nThen with constant interaction with the rules. Editing assignments like these Punctuation Puzzles (or my infamous Editor Duty assignments!) WITH discussion will go a long way.\n\n \n\nWhen you grade student grammar assignments, any time you can, do it orally with their book in front of them. Have them pen in the corrections. Discuss ones the student missed.\n\n \n\nWhen discussing these issues, tell how they are \u201cjust like this\u201d or \u201csimilar to that\u201d\u2014associating what they already know with what you are trying to teach.\n\n \n\nWhen they make these errors in their writing, correct them for the student! And tell them why\u2026.without marking down their grade for tricky ones that they are just learning.\n\n \n\nAND\u2026any time you can, use a \u201cTricky Trick to Help It Stick\u201d (see my recent Tricky Trick downloadable sheets here <\/a>and here<\/a>!) Sometimes students don\u2019t need long explanations and lists of rules as much as they need a trick or a tip that works over and over again that they can rely on.\n\n \n\nGood luck with this week\u2019s puzzles! (And don\u2019t forget to comment or email me with topics you would like to see in future puzzles!)\n\n \n
PUZZLE:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\u201cListen to your Father, Pinocchio!\u201d, the cricket pleaded.<\/strong><\/em>\n\nThe answer?\n\n\u201cListen to your father, Pinocchio!\u201d the cricket pleaded.<\/strong><\/em>\n\n \n
A. Proper Nouns<\/h2>\n1. The first term we need to define to correct this sentence is the phrase proper noun.<\/em>\n
B. Quotations with Exclamation Points\/Question Marks<\/h3>\n1. The second error in our sentence relates to how to use an exclamation point or question mark at the end of a quote. As you may know, a quote, followed by a speech tag, always ends with a comma, not a period.<\/strong> For example,\n\n\u201cTake these coins and buy a schoolbook, Pinocchio,\u201d<\/strong><\/span> Geppetto commanded.\n\nNot \u2013\n\n\u201cTake these coins and buy a schoolbook, Pinocchio.\u201d<\/strong><\/span> Geppetto commanded.\n\n \n\nTRICKY TRICK: A sentence can only have one period used as a period\/end mark.<\/strong><\/em>\n\n \n\n \n\n2. However, what are we supposed to do when a quote ends in an exclamation point or question mark, before a speech tag?\n
\u201cListen to your father, Pinocchio!\u201d the cricket pleaded.<\/h3>\n \n\nToday\u2019s Punctuation Puzzle sentence comes from a student writing assignment found in the Pinocchio<\/em> Twice-Told Tale<\/em> product (a Really Writing<\/em>) book available in January 2018 from the Character Ink Store, Teachers Pay Teachers, and CurrClick.","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1264,640,1268],"tags":[446,209,181,1337],"yoast_head":"\n