BIS instructors have identified semicolon  misuse as a frequent error seen in student papers, especially in  the capstone proposal and final project. Especial areas of concern include:

• semicolons used to connect sentences
• semicolons in complex lists

PRACTICE

In order to address these issues, students should review these issues after they have been identified and practiced in class.  Possible support materials can be found at

http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/resources/handouts/com_semi_colon.pdf  

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/04

You may also use any other written or on line assistance you may need,.  If pronoun usage continues to be an issue, you may wish to schedule a session with a Writing Center tutor, which session can then be written up to satisfy one of the Event requirements for this course. When ready, you will be taking the semicolon usage quiz for course credit.

 QUIZ ON PRONOUN USAGE

• Go to the section of Diana Hacker's website which is devoted to usage.
• Click on the link to Grammar Exercises
• Click Cancel.  (NO NOT log on or register.)
• Click Punctuation
• You will be completing THREE exercises:
• P3-1
• P3-2
• P4-1
• Each exercise will contain 10 questions.  For each question, click the answer choice you consider to be correct.  The answer you selected will turn a definite color (usually brown) and a box will appear indicating whether or not your response was correct.
• Click on the arrow to the right,  just above the question, to go to the next question. Next to the arrow is an indication of which question you are attempting; for instance: Question 1 out of 10.
• When you have completed all 10 questions in an exercise, click Score. Your correct score out of 10 will appear.

AT THIS POINT, STOP AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW BEFORE GOING ON TO THE NEXT EXERCISE.

 REPORTING YOUR SCORE

You will record the score for ALL FOUR exercises in ONE document. You will need to record your score after completing EACH exercise.  

• Open an empty Word document.  At the top of the first page, title the document "Semicolon Usage."
• Press Enter twice.
• Return to your semicolon exercise score screen.  Center the image so that your score and the name of the exercise are clearly visible.
• Push the Print Screen key at the top of your keyboard on the right.  Nothing will happen that you can see.
• Return to the Word document.  
• Paste by either
• pushing Ctrl-V
• right clicking on the file and then clicking Paste
• Choosing Edit from the tool bar at the top of the screen, then Paste
• A shot of your score screen should appear in the Word document.  
• Save the document in Word 2003 as Semicolons.doc.  Remember NOT to save in Word 2007, which ends file names with .docx.  WebCT cannot read these files.  Save in Word 2003 format as a .doc file.
• Repeat this procedure at the end of each exercise.  Paste each score screen below the previous one; Word normally starts a separate page for each screen shot.  Save each time.
• Upload the completed file of four screen shots to WebCT's Submit Assignments/Semicolons.

GRADING

WebCT uses a 100 point grade scale.  Since you will have answered 30 questions about pronoun usage, each question will be worth 3 1/3 points out of 100.

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