Editing Dialogue for Quotation Marks

Dialogue uses quotation marks. These special marks go before and after the exact words of the speaker.

Periods and commas that follow the speaker’s words always go inside the quotation marks.

Question marks and exclamation marks go inside the quotation marks when they punctuation the dialogue.

Revising to Add Sensory Details

To help your story come alive, you can add details about what you saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched. These are called sensory details.

Sensory details help you show readers what is happening, rather than just telling them. You can collect these details in a sensory chart.

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

The first sentence in your narrative should grab the reader’s attention. It is called a lead. The following strategies will help you write an effective lead.

1. Start in the middle of the action:

   I thought I was ready when I arrived at our school’s auditorium.

2. Start with dialogue:

   “Just wait a little longer,” said my grandpa.

3. Start with an interesting fact or statement:

   When Manny came to my school, I didn’t expect to become best friends.

Lead:

Introductory Details:

Editing for the Future Tense

When you write about something that hasn’t happened yet, you should add will before the base form of the verb. This will change the sentence to the future tense, expressing action that will happen later. In a problem-solution essay, use the future tense to predict what will result if a solution goes into action.

In this example, the helping verb will shows that the verbs clean and beautify happen in the future.

1. I caught a butterfly.

   I will catch a butterfly.

2. I walk home from my neighbor’s house.
3. We clean the kitchen.
4. Workers painted the walls white.
5. My family goes to vacation in Florida.
6. My classmates and I perform in a play at the end of the year.
7. The rain cools down the pool water.
8. What happens next?

Prewriting for Problem-Solution Essays

Before you start writing your essay, you need to think about some problems in your community and ways you could help solve them. These prewriting activities will help you examine a problem, come up with a solution, and gather and organize details before you begin a first draft.

Prewriting to Explore Problems

Editing Commas with Intro Words

Place a comma after introductory words, phrases, and clauses in sentences. The comma after introductory material signals that the main part of the sentence will follow.

Here is an example where the comma comes after a word.

In this example, the comma comes after a phrase.

The comma comes after a clause in this last example.

Revising to Make Concessions

It is important that you remain fair in an opinion essay. This means that you must consider all the issues and other opinions related to your topic. If you concede some of the issues on “the other side,” you can actually strengthen your own opinion.

The second paragraph in “Car Problems” fairly concedes that cars are important in modern life. But the writer also says that they are still a problem. Sometimes, a concession will begin with a transition such as these: it is true that, admittedly, even though, or I agree that . . .

Writing the Beginning Paragraph

The beginning paragraph of an opinion essay is very important. It should introduce the topic, get the reader’s attention, and state your opinion. To get the reader’s attention, you can ask questions, make a dramatic statement or two, or share important information.

Prewriting to Select a Topic

For your own opinion essay, you need to select a topic that is debatable and that you feel strongly about. A debatable topic is one that people have differing opinions about. There is no debate that young people need to exercise, but there is debate about extending the school year.

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