1. Edit the following
Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in the United States in February The novel follows Huck and Jim on there journey down the mississippi river. Both characters flea the fictional town of St. Petersburg for very different reasons. Huck leaves because he's guardian wants to sivilize him. Jim runs a way to escape the torments of slavery. Along the way Huck and Jim meet a host of colorful characters and come to forge a lasting friend ship.

2. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in the United States in February The novel follows Huck and Jim on their journey down the Mississippi River. Both characters flee the fictional town of St. Petersburg for very different reasons. Huck runs away because his guardian wants to civilize him. Jim runs away to escape the torments of slavery. Along the way, Huck and Jim meet a host of colorful characters and come to forge a lasting friendship.

3. When to use a comma In a list
A car that is red,green, and yellow would be ugly.
To separate extra info you DON’T need in any part of the sentence
My brother, Alex, is 16.
Although it was raining, I didn’t have an umbrella
Before a FANBOY connecting two COMPLETE sentences
I went to the store, and I bought Oreos.

4. Sentence Structure: Independent Clauses
A complete sentence has at least two components, a subject and a verb.
The subject and verb must form a complete thought to be considered an independent clause.
Key Concepts: This slide explains the structure of an independent clause, the primary building block for the development of any sentence. An independent clause requires a subject and a verb that can stand as a complete thought. Sentences can be very short, as the one detailed in the slide. The facilitator may ask the audience to identify the subject and verb in the example.

5. Sentence Structure: Compound Sentences
Compound Sentence: a sentence that contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction
A conjunction joins words, phrases, and clauses together in a sentence.
Conjunctions (remember with the acronym FANBOYS):
Key Concepts: This slide explains the structure of a compound sentence and the role of a conjunction. An easy method for remembering the seven coordinating conjunctions is the acronym “fan boys.”

6. Sentence Structure: Dependent Phrases
A dependent clause contains a subject and verb, but the clause cannot stand independently.
Dependent clauses can often be identified by the use of dependent clause markers:
Key Concepts: This slide explains the definition of a dependent clause. The dependent clause markers can help writers identify clauses that cannot stand alone within a sentence.

7. Sentence Structure: Introductory Clauses
When a dependent clause is placed at the beginning of a sentence, place a comma between the independent clause and the dependent clause.
Key Concepts: An introductory clause is a dependent clause located at the beginning of a sentence. After an introductory clause, a comma is needed to distinguish it from the independent clause.
Activity: The facilitator may choose to ask students to identify the independent and dependent clauses, the subjects, the verbs, and the dependent clause marker in the sample sentence.

8. Dependent Clauses
When a dependent clause is located after an independent clause, do not place a comma between the two.
Activity: When a dependent clause follows an independent clause, commas are not used. Facilitators may choose to ask students to identify the parts of speech in the example.

9. Essential Phrases and Clauses
An essential clause or phrase is used to modify a noun. It adds information that is critical to the meaning of the sentence.
Essential clauses are not set off by commas.
Key Concepts: This slide leads off a section about essential and non-essential phrases and clauses. Essential phrases and clauses—elements that add critical information to the meaning of a sentence—do not have commas placed around them. For the slide example: Without the essential phrase, this sentence does not make complete sense : The people are loud! While the sentence is grammatically correct, we don’t know about the people being discussed.

10. Non-essential Phrases and Clauses
A nonessential clause or phrase adds extra information to a sentence. This information can be eliminated from the sentence without influencing the meaning of the sentence.
Always place commas around nonessential phrases and clauses.
Key Concepts: This slide illustrates the difference between essential and nonessential elements. While commas should not be placed around essential phrases and clauses, they should be placed around nonessential phrases and clauses.

11. Sentence Structure: Commas in a Series
Place commas in a sentence to divide items in a list.
The commas will help the reader to avoid confusion.
The comma before the conjunction is generally required, but it can be omitted if there is no possibility of confusion.
Key Concept: Commas should be placed between each element within a list. This placement can help the reader to avoid confusion.

12. Sentence Structure: Commas in a Series
Consider the difference in the following:
Last month, Alex dated Mary Ann Lee and Kim.
Last month, Alex dated Mary, Ann, Lee, and Kim.
Last month, Alex dated Mary Ann, Lee, and Kim.
How many women did Alex date?
Activity: These examples illustrate the importance of comma placement within a list. The facilitator may ask students to answer the question “How many women did Alex date?” in accordance with each example—two women in the first, four in the second, and three in the third.

13. Sentence Structure: Commas in a Series
Commas should be placed in series of words, phrases, or clauses.
Place commas in the following sentences:
Martina brushed her hair put on her pajamas and went to bed.
She fell asleep and dreamed that she was a princess she kissed a frog and she rescued her prince.
Activity: The facilitator may stress to participants that a series includes a list of words, but it can also include a list of phrases or clauses. This exercise allows participants to determine when the commas should be placed in each sentence.

14. Commas with Adjectives
Use commas to separate adjectives that provide an equal description of a noun. The test:
Can you put “and” between the adjectives?
Can they be described in reverse order?
If yes, use a comma.
Activity: The facilitator may stress to participants that a series includes a list of words, but it can also include a list of phrases or clauses. This exercise allows participants to determine when the commas should be placed in each sentence.

15. A Common Error: The Comma Splice
A comma splice is an error in which two independent clauses are joined by a comma.
Key Concepts: One of the most prevalent comma errors is the comma splice—the placement of a comma between two independent clauses.

16. Where to Go for More Help Purdue University Writing Lab, Heavilon 226
Check our web site:
brief questions to OWL Mail:
Rationale: As the presentation concludes, the facilitator can remind students that they can come to the Writing Lab for extra help with comma usage.
The Writing Lab is located on the West Lafayette Campus in room 226 of Heavilon Hall. The lab is open 9:00am-6:00 pm. OWL, Online Writing Lab, is a reach resource of information. Its address is And finally, you can your questions to OWL Mail at and our tutors will get back to you promptly.
Click mouse after the title question.
For additional assistance with comma usage, see:
Harris, Muriel. Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

17. Mark Twain define humour
“The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander around as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular…it is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects there is anything funny about it.”

18. Your Task
Do page 430 IN YOUR BOOK (we will do one to two examples together)-you can do this as a group
AS AN INDIVIDUAL-create a 4-5 slide power point in which you select which story BEST represents Twain’s definition of humor and WHY
This is like an argumentative essay you must have:
3 reasons with their own slides
A counter claim/ counter point
Rebuttal
Pictures etc.
Due by next week Friday via
EACH PERSON WILL CREATE THEIR OWN POWERPOINT-you may work together to brain storm