Brain Pop Quiz Study Guide
Name:_______________
Run-ons
Define the following term:
Run-on sentence: ______________________________________________________________________
Name three different ways that a run-on sentence can be corrected.
1. __________________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________________
Some of the following sentences are correct and some are a run-on. Write C before the correct sentences
and an R before the run-on sentences. For a run-on sentence, make a correction on the line provided.
1. ____ My favorite sport is rugby, it rocks! ______________________________________________
2. ____ Some dinosaurs had feathers, and they may have glided from tree to tree.
_________________________________________________________________________
3. ____ Tall aliens have green skin and short aliens have grey skin. ___________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
4. ____ Fred’s acting wonky, he’s totally not himself today.__________________________________
5. ____ Moby thinks orange is an underrated color, and he should know. _______________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Which of the following sentences is correct?
Which of the following is a run-on sentence?
a. I drove to Minneapolis, and it took a long
time.
b. I drove to Minneapolis it took a long time.
c. I drove, to Minneapolis, it took a long
time.
d. I drove – to Minneapolis – it took a long
time.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Tim’s
Tim’s
Tim’s
Tim’s
book is long, it has 400 pages.
book is long, and it has 400 pages.
book is long; it has 400 pages.
long book has 400 pages.
Fragments
Define the following term:
Sentence Fragment: ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
“Likes to run and play.” What is this sentence
fragment missing?
a. predicate
b. subject
c. nothing
“After the movie?” What is this sentence
fragment missing?
a. subject
b. predicate
c. nothing
“After the movie?” is a
“I loved it!” is a(n)
a. dependent clause
b. independent clause
c. complete sentence
a. dependent clause
b. independent clause
c. sentence fragment
Which of the following is a sentence fragment?
a.
b.
c.
d.
The Giants win the pennant!
The Giants!
The Giants win!
It was an historic home run!
Show Not Tell
What are the five senses and their verbs? #1 has been done for you as an example.
1. Sense: Sight Verb: See
2. Sense: _______
Verb: _______
3. Sense: _______
Verb: _______
4. Sense: _______
Verb: _______
5. Sense: _______
Verb: _______
Read the statement that TELLS you what’s happening, and then write your own paragraph that SHOWS
what’s happening.
Tell: It snowed hard through the night.
Show: _______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Tell: We spent the day at the beach.
Show: _______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
“David Wright hit a home run.” How can you best re-write this sentence in a descriptive way?
a. Wright’s bat emitted a thunderous crack as the ball sailed into the far reaches of the left-field
seats.
b. Wright swung. His bat met the ball. The ball went over the fence.
c. In the fifth inning, Wright hit his 20th home run, giving him 85 RBI and 72 runs scored on the
season.
d. The Mets rallied to victory behind Wright’s home run.
How can you SHOW that a person is crying without saying it in those words? Choose the best answer.
a.
b.
c.
d.
When she talked about her sister’s illness, she was sad.
She smiled when I entered the room, but I could see that she was crying.
Her face was blotchy and her eyes were moist.
I took one look at her and could tell she wasn’t happy.
“Rita was happy when she received and A on her history paper.” How can you best re-write this sentence
in a descriptive way?
a. Rita smiled when she got an A on her history paper.
b. All the kids in class were jealous of Rita – and their mood grew angrier when they saw her smile
after acing another assignment.
c. When Rita got her paper back from her teacher, she was happy to see that she’d gotten an A.
d. When Rita saw the bright red ‘A’ at the top of her paper, her heart leapt with joy.”
Strengthening Sentences
Define the following terms:
Redundant:___________________________________________________________________________
Passive voice:_________________________________________________________________________
Active voice:__________________________________________________________________________
Modifier:_____________________________________________________________________________
Which of the following sentences is in the active voice?
a.
b.
c.
d.
The sweater was bought by Cassie.
The students were put to sleep by the boring teacher.
Moby was hit on the head by an anvil.
I consider myself a great student.
How can you use a thesaurus to improve your writing?
a.
b.
c.
d.
You
You
You
You
can
can
can
can
look up the correct spellings of words.
figure out whether words are modifiers or not.
find interesting words to replace bland ones
find ways to change passive-voice sentence constructions into active-voice ones.
Run-ons
Define the following term:
Run-on sentence: an independent clause that has been run together without correct punctuation
Name three different ways that a run-on sentence can be corrected.
1. Make it 2 simple sentences separated by a period.
2. Use a semicolon (;) to divide the 2 sentences if they are closely related.
3. Join the 2 sentences together with a comma and a conjunction (joining word like ‘and’ or ‘but’.)
Some of the following sentences are correct and some are a run-on. Write C before the correct sentences
and an R before the run-on sentences. For a run-on sentence, make a correction on the line provided.
1. R My favorite sport is rugby, it rocks! My favorite sport is rugby. It rocks! OR My favorite sport is
rugby; it rocks!
2. C Some dinosaurs had feathers, and they may have glided from tree to tree.
3. C Tall aliens have green skin and short aliens have grey skin.
4. R Fred’s acting wonky, he’s totally not himself today. Fred’s acting wonky; he’s totally not himself
today. OR Fred’s acting wonky. He’s totally not himself today.
5. C Moby thinks orange is an underrated color, and he should know.
Which of the following sentences is correct?
Which of the following is a run-on sentence?
a. I drove to Minneapolis, and it took a long
time.
b. I drove to Minneapolis it took a long time.
c. I drove, to Minneapolis, it took a long
time.
d. I drove – to Minneapolis – it took a long
time.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Tim’s
Tim’s
Tim’s
Tim’s
book is long, it has 400 pages.
book is long, and it has 400 pages.
book is long; it has 400 pages.
long book has 400 pages.
Fragments
Define the following term:
Sentence Fragment: a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, a question
mark, or an exclamation point but is missing a subject or verb
“Likes to run and play.” What is this sentence
fragment missing?
a. predicate
b. subject
c. nothing
“After the movie?” What is this sentence
fragment missing?
a. subject
b. predicate
c. nothing
“After the movie?” is a
“I loved it!” is a(n)
a. dependent clause
b. independent clause
c. complete sentence
a. dependent clause
b. independent clause
c. sentence fragment
Which of the following is a sentence fragment?
a.
b.
c.
d.
The Giants win the pennant!
The Giants!
The Giants win!
It was an historic home run!
Show Not Tell
What are the five senses and their verbs? #1 has been done for you as an example.
6. Sense: Sight Verb: See
7. Sense: sound
Verb: hear
8. Sense: touch
Verb: feel
9. Sense: taste
Verb: taste
10. Sense: smell
Verb: smell
Read the statement that TELLS you what’s happening, and then write your own paragraph that SHOWS
what’s happening.
Tell: It snowed hard through the night.
Show: _______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Tell: We spent the day at the beach.
Show: _______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
“David Wright hit a home run.” How can you best re-write this sentence in a descriptive way?
a. Wright’s bat emitted a thunderous crack as the ball sailed into the far reaches of the left-field
seats.
b. Wright swung. His bat met the ball. The ball went over the fence.
c. In the fifth inning, Wright hit his 20th home run, giving him 85 RBI and 72 runs scored on the
season.
d. The Mets rallied to victory behind Wright’s home run.
How can you SHOW that a person is crying without saying it in those words? Choose the best answer.
a.
b.
c.
d.
When she talked about her sister’s illness, she was sad.
She smiled when I entered the room, but I could see that she was crying.
Her face was blotchy and her eyes were moist.
I took one look at her and could tell she wasn’t happy.
“Rita was happy when she received and A on her history paper.” How can you best re-write this sentence
in a descriptive way?
a. Rita smiled when she got an A on her history paper.
b. All the kids in class were jealous of Rita – and their mood grew angrier when they saw her smile
after acing another assignment.
c. When Rita got her paper back from her teacher, she was happy to see that she’d gotten an A.
d. When Rita saw the bright red ‘A’ at the top of her paper, her heart leapt with joy.”
Strengthening Sentences
Define the following terms:
Redundant: repeated words or ideas that can be deleted without losing meaning – For example the
airplane pilot taxied the airplane to the gate. “Airplane” is used twice – this is redundant and one of them
can be deleted and the sentence will still make sense.
Passive voice: when the object of a sentence is the subject. For example, Moby was hit in the head with
the ball.
Active voice: when the subject of the sentence performs the verb action. For example, The ball hit Moby in
the head.
Modifier: a word that makes changes to another word in the sentence. For example, the girl was pretty.
OR The pretty girl ran home.
Which of the following sentences is in the active voice?
a.
b.
c.
d.
The sweater was bought by Cassie.
The students were put to sleep by the boring teacher.
Moby was hit on the head by an anvil.
I consider myself a great student.
How can you use a thesaurus to improve your writing?
a.
b.
c.
d.
You
You
You
You
can
can
can
can
look up the correct spellings of words.
figure out whether words are modifiers or not.
find interesting words to replace bland ones
find ways to change passive-voice sentence constructions into active-voice ones.