C. O. P. S. Writing Strategies

Capitalization

ü    Each sentence starts with a capital letter.

ü    Proper nouns start with capital letters.

    (Names for people, places, holidays, months, days of the week...)

ü    My title is written correctly.

    (The first, last and all important words begins with capital letters.)

Organization

ü    My story has a title and a by line.

ü    The first sentence of my story is indented.

ü    My main idea sentence is the first sentence of my story.

ü    My sentences are in order – first, next, then and last.

ü    I used strong, colorful verbs, nouns and describing words.

ü    I used the right forms of words like to/too, your/you’re, for/four, and so forth.

Punctuation

ü    Each sentence ends with the correct punctuation mark.

ü    I used commas in a list or series.

ü    I used quotation marks around each speaker’s words.

Sentences

ü    Sentences are clear and complete.

ü    Begin each sentence a different way.

ü    Sentences are different lengths.

ü    I corrected fragments and run-ons.