Checking your writing
Missing capital letters and missing periods are easy mistakes to make. They are also easy to miss. You know what you meant, so your eyes slide right over them.
Check one sentence at a time. Look at two places only. The very front and the very end.
Watch it work
Here are four lines from a child’s writing.
| Line | Front | End | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| We went to the lake. | capital | period | none needed |
| the water was cold. | missing | period | capital T |
| My dad caught a fish | capital | missing | period after fish |
| we ate it for dinner | missing | missing | both marks |
Fixed: “The water was cold.” and “My dad caught a fish.” and “We ate it for dinner.”
A checklist
- Find where the sentence starts. Is that letter a capital?
- Find the last word. Is there a period after it?
- Check whether two ideas got squeezed together.
- Make sure no extra words got a capital in the middle.
Step one has a catch. A sentence does not always start at the left edge of the line. One sentence may end partway along. The next one starts right there, and it still needs a capital letter.
Your turn
Three of these four lines have a mistake. Find them.
- “My grandma sent a letter.”
- “i read it twice.”
- “She is coming on Friday”
- “we made her a card”
Check your answers
- Correct.
- Needs a capital I at the front.
- Needs a period after Friday.
- Needs both a capital W and a period.
Remember
- Check the front and the end of every sentence.
- A new sentence can start in the middle of a line.
- Watch for two ideas squeezed into one.