Week 15: Week 15 — Written Conventions: Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics
Week of Mon, Feb 22 · week closes Sun, Feb 28
This week's items
Exact due times are in Canvas. Each week opens on its Monday and stays open. Practice is never late — but the MCAP window opens April 5, 2027, so keep pace.
Know these cold
- Every MCAP ELA 10 constructed response earns a Written Conventions score from 0 to 3. It measures your command of grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, so careful editing turns into points.
- Two complete sentences cannot be joined by a comma alone; that error is a comma splice. Join them with a semicolon, with a comma plus a word such as and or but, or split them into two sentences.
- A colon introduces a list or an explanation, but only after a complete sentence. Use a semicolon before words like however and therefore when they join two complete sentences, and put a comma after them.
- Commas set off extra, nonessential information, such as a clause beginning with who or which that the sentence could lose without changing its core meaning.
- A verb must agree with its subject, not with a noun in a phrase that comes between them. In "The box of photographs was heavy," the subject is box, so the verb is singular.
- Pronouns must match the nouns they replace and must be in the right case. Use me, him, her, us, and them after prepositions such as between and for.
- Keep verb tenses consistent. If a story begins in the past tense, stay in the past unless the time actually changes.
- Every sentence needs a subject and a complete verb and must express a complete thought. Fix fragments by attaching them to a nearby sentence, and fix run-ons by adding punctuation or a joining word.
- Items in a list or series should be parallel, using the same grammatical form, and a modifier should sit next to the word it describes.
Meerk's quiz — open the Week 15 gate
10 questions, no time limit. One counted try: 85% opens the gate. Miss it and Meerk's Study Path opens: it teaches every miss back to you, then a mastery check — and it cannot finish before 25 minutes of real study. Then your second try opens. Work alone; the point is to know it, not to have seen it.
Stuck?
Raise your hand. Mr. James gets a message right away and can help you remotely. Nothing else is stored — just your last name, grade, and where you're stuck.
My Progress
Dinner Table Question
Ask at home: Can you find a sign, menu, or text message this week with a grammar or punctuation mistake, and does the mistake change what it seems to say?
En español: ¿Puedes encontrar esta semana un letrero, un menú o un mensaje de texto con un error de gramática o puntuación? ¿Ese error cambia lo que parece decir?