Practice: Editing Rules/Bell Ringer Rules Supply the correct form of lie or lay in each of the following sentences. 1) Mr. Alig is *** sod in his back yard today. 2) Upon leaving class yesterday, each student *** his quiz on the teacher s desk. 3) Since Mr. Alig did not have time to grade, the quizzes have *** on his desk since last night. 4) Yesterday Mr. Alig *** on his couch, watching highlight footage of Tyreek Hill breaking into space for a 90- yard touchdown. 5) Who is going to *** the new foundation for the house? Supply the correct form of who or whom (or the appropriate variant) in each of the following sentences. 6) The students in Effective Writing, *** worked very hard for their teacher, made tremendous strides in their knowledge of editing rules. 7) We should thank *** gave our school this large donation. 8) We must return the money to *** dropped it on the floor. 9) I didn t hear the announcement. The first-place finisher was ***? 10) The principal, *** we respect very much, decided to institute a modified block schedule. 11) From *** did we receive this bountiful gift of Tyreek Hill merchandise? Each sentence contains one editing error or NO editing errors. Based on the rules we have learned, make necessary changes in order to correct each sentence. Do not add or delete any words. If a sentence is correct, make no marks. 12) I need money mom; can t you loan me twenty dollars? 13) Mr. Alig studied Tyreek Hill s stats, therefore, he impressed his students with his vast, detailed knowledge of the Kansas City Chiefs star. 14) The reminder tone told us that someone had forgotten to turn off their phone. 15) As long as you study you should do well on the editing quiz. 16) Some students laughed at Mr. Alig s dearth of football knowledge others pitied the balding teacher s ignorance of the sport. 17) Mr. Alig s sesquipedalianism often befuddles, and bemuses colleagues and students alike. 18) We had only been eating for 15 minutes before Mr. Alig asked for seconds. 19) If you want to effect lasting change, determine the real cause of student apathy, and attack it at its core. 20) Someone left their phone on Tyreek Hill s table. 21) Mom baking cookies made my mouth water and my stomach growl! Rewrite to show ownership using an apostrophe. Spelling counts, too. 22) the thorns belonging to more than one cactus 23) the grief belonging to more than one woman 24) the cough drop belonging to one patient 25) the posters belonging to more than one Tyreek Hill fan
Answers and Explanations Practice: Editing Rules/Bell Ringer Rules Supply the correct form of lie or lay in each of the following sentences. 1) Mr. Alig is *** sod in his back yard today. Think: I need a verb meaning to place or to put because sod is a direct object; it was being placed on the ground. Think: This sentence requires the present participle because of the helper verb is. Rejoice if you realized the correct answer is laying. 2) Upon leaving class yesterday, each student *** his quiz on the teacher s desk. Think: I need a verb meaning to place or to put because quiz is a direct object; each quiz was placed on the desk. Think: This sentence requires the past tense because it happened in the past and there s no form of have as a helper verb. Rejoice if you realized the correct answer is lay (not laid Fight the urge!). 3) Since Mr. Alig did not have time to grade, the quizzes have *** on his desk since last night. Think: I need a verb meaning to rest or recline because the quizzes were just sitting (resting, if you will) on the desk. Remember: That verb is a form of lie. Think: This sentence requires the past participle because it features the helper verb have. Rejoice if you realized the correct answer is lain. 4) Yesterday Mr. Alig *** on his couch, watching highlight footage of Tyreek Hill breaking into space for a 90- yard touchdown. Think: I need a verb meaning to rest or recline because Mr. Alig was not putting anything down; there is no direct object. He was merely resting on his couch. Remember: That verb is a form of lie. Think: This sentence requires the past tense because it happened in the past but there s no form of have as a helper. Rejoice if you realized the correct answer is lay (not laid Fight the urge!). 5) Who is going to *** the new foundation for the house? Think: I need a verb meaning to place or to put because foundation is a direct object; it was being placed on the ground. Think: This sentence requires the present tense because of the helper verb to. Rejoice if you realized the correct answer is lay. (You just supplied the infinitive form of the verb here.)
Supply the correct form of who or whom (or the appropriate variant) in each of the following sentences. 6) The students in Effective Writing, *** worked very hard for their teacher, made tremendous strides in their knowledge of editing rules. o This sentence contains an adjective clause (in yellow). o verb = worked o Asking Who or what worked? will lead us to the subject if it s there in the clause. 7) We should thank *** gave our school this large donation. o This sentence contains a noun clause (in blue). o verb = gave o Asking Who or what gave? will lead us to the subject if it s there in the clause. Apply the sound test. Who sounds bad. Who s = barf. Whoever works! 8) We must return the money to *** dropped it on the floor. o This sentence contains a noun clause (in blue). o verb = dropped o Asking Who or what dropped? will lead us to the subject if it s there in the clause. Apply the sound test. Who sounds bad. Who s = barf. Whoever works! 9) I didn t hear the announcement. The first-place finisher was ***? o This sentence contains no such clauses, so treat the entire sentence as a clause (in green). Looking only at the sentence, determine if it has a subject. o verb = was o Asking Who or what was? will lead us to the subject if it s there. The subject is finisher. Use whom since you have a subject. Change your answer to who if you realized this is the exception to the method. o Your answer occurs to the right of a linking verb. That verb is the entire verb for the sentence; it s not acting as a helper verb. That s a requirement in finding this exception. o When your answer occurs to the right of a linking verb and refers back to the subject, always use who.
10) The principal, *** we respect very much, decided to institute a modified block schedule. o This sentence contains an adjective clause (in yellow). o verb = respect o Asking Who or what did the respecting? will lead us to the subject if it s there in the clause. There is a subject: we. Use whom since you already have a subject. 11) From *** did we receive this bountiful gift of Tyreek Hill merchandise? o This sentence contains no such clauses, so treat the entire sentence as a clause. Looking only at the sentence, determine if it has a subject. o verb = did receive o Asking Who or what did receive? will lead us to the subject if it s there. The subject is we. Use whom since you have a subject. Each sentence contains one editing error or NO editing errors. Based on the rules we have learned, make necessary changes in order to correct each sentence. Do not add or delete any words. If a sentence is correct, make no marks. 12) I need money, mom; can t you loan me twenty dollars? Mom is a noun of direct address, so it must be set off by a comma. The semicolon is correct. It s merely joining two closely-related sentence. It can get somewhat complicated when the first sentence ends with a noun of direct address, so be careful. 13) Mr. Alig studied Tyreek Hill s stats, therefore, he impressed his students with his vast, detailed knowledge of the Kansas City Chiefs star. The highlighted comma creates a comma splice. It should be a semicolon (or period which would then necessitate the capitalization of the t in therefore). 14) The reminder tone told us that someone had forgotten to turn off their phone. Their refers to the singular someone. Therefore, their should be his (or her or his or her). 15) As long as you study, you should do well on the editing quiz. The subordinate clause is highlighted in yellow. Since the subordinate clause was used to begin a sentence, it must be followed by a comma. (The same rule was exemplified in the previous sentence.) 16) Some students laughed at Mr. Alig s dearth of football knowledge; others pitied the balding teacher s ignorance of the sport. This is a run-on sentence. Since the two sentences are so closely related, they should be joined by a semicolon. 17) Mr. Alig s sesquipedalianism often befuddles, and bemuses colleagues and students alike. The highlighted comma is not allowed because the coordinating conjunction (and) is NOT joining one complete sentence to another complete sentence.
18) We had only been eating for 15 minutes before Mr. Alig asked for seconds. Only must always be as close as possible to the word it modifies. In this case, it is modifying an amount of time. 19) If you want to effect lasting change, determine the real cause of student apathy, and attack it at its core. This sentence is correct. The first comma is necessary because it separates an introductory subordinate clause from the rest of the sentence. Effect is correct because it is used to mean to bring about. The second comma is required because it is being used along with and to join one sentence to another sentence. 20) Someone left their phone on Tyreek Hill s table. Their refers to the singular someone. Therefore, their should be his (or her or his or her). 21) Mom baking cookies made my mouth water and my stomach growl! Baking cookies is a gerund phrase, so it s considered a thing. Therefore, mom must be in the possessive case: mom s. Think of it as this: Mom s act of baking cookies made my mouth water and my stomach growl. Rewrite to show ownership using an apostrophe. Spelling counts, too. 22) cacti s thorns = the thorns belonging to more than one cactus First, change the owner to plural form if needed: cactus cacti does NOT end in s cacti s Last, tack on the item owned cacti s thorns 23) women s grief = the grief belonging to more than one woman First, change the owner to plural form if needed: woman women does NOT end in s women s Last, tack on the item owned women s grief 24) patient s cough drop = the cough drop belonging to one patient First, change the owner to plural form if needed: not needed in this scenario Second, add an apostrophe + s patient s Last, tack on the item owned patient s cough drop 25) Tyreek Hill fans posters = the posters belonging to more than one Tyreek Hill fan First, change the owner to plural form if needed: Tyreek Hill fan Tyreek Hill fans does NOT end in s Tyreek Hill Fans Last, tack on the word owned Tyreek Hill Fans posters