Harvey's Elementary Grammar and Composition · Lesson 5 · Part 1: Part I: The elementary course
4. Quotation marks
Goal: Your child puts quotation marks around someone's exact words and starts the quotation with a capital letter.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and a pencil (or a slate)
What's in the book
Lesson 5 shows quotation marks with a man's yawning remark, gives the rules for using them, and has four sentences to write with quotation marks and capitals.
The lesson, step by step
Review
Ask your child to give one sentence of each kind: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.
Look at the example
Show the book's example:
The man yawned, and said, "How sleepy I am!"
Point to the marks before and after the man's words. Read the line:
They are called Quotation Marks.
The rules
Read the book's rules:
Quotation Marks should be used, in writing, when we quote the exact language of another.
Such a quotation should begin with a capital letter.
The book adds that when we only tell what someone said, not in their exact words, we leave the marks out.
Oral practice
Say a sentence like: Mom said, "Dinner is ready." Then: Mom said that dinner was ready.
Ask which one uses her exact words. Only that one gets quotation marks.
Write the book's sentences
Copy these, adding quotation marks and capitals:
Did your mother send you, said the merchant, gruffly.
Will you come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.
The general said, be ready to start at 5 A. M.
Find the speaker's exact words first, then put the marks around them.
Check together
Compare with the answers. Look especially at the capital letter at the start of each quotation.
Use it today
In a storybook, find a line of conversation. Point to where the quotation marks open and close.
Tip
Old books put the question mark in different places than we might. Today, the question mark goes inside the quotation marks when the quoted words are a question.
Answers to the book's problems
"Did your mother send you?" said the merchant, gruffly. The general said, "Be ready to start at 5 A. M." "Will you come into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly. The pupils kept repeating, "Four times three are twelve, four times three are twelve," for at least three minutes.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.