Grammar Assessment

In order to show your mastery of the grammar skills we have been discussing in class (capitalization,
apostrophes, troublesome pairs, and run-on sentences/comma splices), choose one of the following
prompts to write about. You will be given 45 minutes to write. You must use this time to plan as well.
Your writing should be clear, coherent, and include a beginning, middle, and an end.
BE SURE TO INCLUDE:
- At least 5 uses of an apostrophe
- At least 3 titles (books, poems, songs, etc., or titles of people)
- The number of the prompt you choose AT THE TOP OF YOUR PAPER, below your name

PROMPT CHOICES
1) Tell a story using these as your opening lines: There it was, finally. Our island. Our very own
island. It looked beautiful above the waves of fog, but there was still one question to be
answered: why had they sold it to us for only five dollars? If you choose this prompt, you DO
NOT need to recopy down those lines on your paper.
2) You have a chance to go back and completely re-do an event in your life. What event is it? How
do you change it? What is the outcome? How does this change your life moving forward? This
can be a real or fictional event.
3) Tell me a story, any story of your choosing. It can be any story from your childhood, a story
from last night, or a story youve imagined. Tell me a story.
4) Tell me about the most important lesson youve learned so far. How did you learn it? Who
taught it to you? Why was it important? Is it still relevant to your life now, or was it something
that was only relevant when you learned it? How has it affected your life since youve learned
it?
5) There is music playing in the background. Pablo Casals once said, Music is the divine way to
tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart. Write the story of this piece of music. What are the
beautiful, poetic things it tells? What is the story it tells?

IMPORTANT: Every time you use a troublesome pair correctly in the same sentence, you get 1
extra credit point. Up to 4 points are possible to earn.
For example: Theyre going with their grandparents over there to the creek.