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1. 6 + 1 Writing Traits
Trait #6 – Conventions
Justin Rague
Adam Sturm
MED 6316 – Language Arts Instruction
In Elementary Schools
Dr. Saunders
2/3/14

2. Conventions

The sixth trait

Stages of a home:
Ideas
Organization
Sentence
Fluency
Voice
Conventions
Word Choice

3. Conventions' Five
Elements

Spelling

Punctuation

Capitalization

Grammar/Usage

Paragraphing

4. SPELLING
I don’t know how to spell!
I am a bad speller!
You just tell me how to spell it!
These excuses will not work. What should you do if you don’t
know how to spell a word?
Look it up in the dictionary
Ask a friend
Look at the resources around you

5. PUNCTUATION
Know the different types of punctuation.
period .
comma ,
question mark ?
exclamation point !
colon :
hyphen –
ellipse …
parentheses ( )

6. CAPITALIZATION
When do I use capital letters?
Names of people – Christopher Columbus
Words used as names – grandpa
Titles used as names – President Bush
Abbreviations – NFL
Proper Nouns – New York City
Historical Information – Civil War
Organizations - Republican

7. CAPITALIZATION
Geographic Names – Agusta, Maine
Nationalities – Egyptian
Languages – Spanish
Titles – Freckle Juice
First Words – The sky is blue.
Days & Months – Monday, January
Holidays – Easter
Greetings – Dear Charlie,
Closings – Your friend, Margo

8. GRAMMAR/USAGE
Check all your sentences.
One
cool fall day Tom, Bill, and Bobby.
One cool fall day Tom, Bill, and Bobby went to go fishing
they caught only on fish all day.

Do you have sentence fragments or run-on sentences?
Do your subjects & verbs agree?
Bill
walk to the fishing hole.
Tom, Bill, and Bobby loves to go fishing.

9. PARAGRAPHING
A paragraph is a group of sentences that
concentrate on one topic.
Indent
each time you begin a new topic.
Each paragraph should include a…
sentence – tells what the paragraph is about
Body – detail sentences that back up the main idea
Closing sentence – sums up the big idea
Topic

10. CONVENTIONS

Grade Level accomodations

End of writing process

Checklist
Are my words spelled correctly
Is my grammar and usage correct
Do my subjects and verbs agree with one another
Have I capitalized proper nouns and words at the beginning of
sentences
Does each sentence end with appropriate punctuation

Proofread and edited with care