Years of research and demonstrate that traditional methods of grammar instruction simply do not work; one common complaint about grammar instruction from its lack of context-its reliance, for example, on abstract rules and examples. These stark examples clarify grammatical ideas; however, they fail to , including its grammar and punctuation, in action, in the real-life texts that . By incorporating the texts that students read or compose on their own, this lesson highlights the choice of the semicolon to create rhetorical effect in an audience, how one author uses the seemingly insignificant punctuation mark to his ideas and urges students to follow the model in their own writing; only by exploring language in context, written for a particular time and place, can students the subtle ways that punctuation affects meaning.

Read the excerpt from julius caesar, act 1, scene 1. marullus. wherefore rejoice? what conquest brings he home? what tributaries follow him to rome to grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? you blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless35 things! o, you hard hearts, you cruel men of rome, knew you not pompey? many a time and oft have you climbed up to walls and battlements, to towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, your infants in your arms, and there have sat40 the livelong day, with patient expectation, to see great pompey pass the streets of rome. which summary of the passage is the best? marullus asks a lot of questions, such as, “why celebrate? what has caesar done? who is following him to rome? don’t you remember pompey? ” then he says that everyone is cruel because they do not remember pompey. they forget how they praised him and would climb to the highest places, carrying their children, just to catch a glimpse of him. marullus regrets that the people are celebrating caesar and is insulted that they forgot how they used to praise pompey. marullus thinks that the people should celebrate caesar the way they used to celebrate pompey, and that they should be in awe of caesar’s greatness. marullus remembers how the people climbed walls, battlements, towers, windows, and even chimney tops to see the great pompey.

Read the excerpt below and answer the question. she was a small woman, short and straight-waisted like a child in her brown cotton gown. her forehead was mild and benevolent between the smooth curves of gray hair; there were meek downward lines about her nose and mouth; but her eyes, fixed upon the old man, looked as if the meekness had been the result of her own will, never of the will of another. in at least one hundred words, explain how this excerpt uses explicit and implicit details to describe sarah penn.

Who thin the context of this excerpt from act 2, scene 1, of macbeth, what is the meaning of the word multitudinous?