Saturday, September 15, 2012

The Exclamation Point!

The exclamation point is greatly overused!
One could even say it is frequently abused!
In advertising copy, it repeatedly resounds!
And in breathless prose, it literally abounds!
The poorer the writer, the more frequently the case!
The exclamation point, they readily embrace!
To give a little emphasis! To make a little point!
This punctuation mark they will appoint!
But, to make emphasis perfectly clear,
Good writers generally appear
to make little use of exclamations
and other such typographic affectations.
-- Ed Truitt


Vocabulary
Exclamation point - a mark to tell a strong feeling !
Advertising - announce something to everyone
Repeatedly - more than once
Copy - something made to look exactly like something else
Embrace - hug
Emphasis - special attention
Appoint - to choose
Overused - used to many times
Appear - to show up
Typographic - the style of printed letters


Vocabulary Exercise - Please fill in the blanks with the correct word

1. The children __________ sang the song "The Wheels on the Bus"" during recess.
2. It was an exact _________ of the original painting in the museum.
3. She expressed her anger by using an ___________ on her Facebook status.
4. The ___________ agency was closed due to the broken printing machine.
5. A magician would _________ when you least expect it.
6. The menu had a _________ style.
7. His great _________ on his school project was outstanding.
8. The children _________ their father with love.
9. Some word are __________ when writing a sentence.
10. High school students must _________ their class president.


Grammar Point
Write down all the nouns (a noun is names a person, thing, animal and idea) and adjectives (an adjective descrives a thing) used in this poem.