paint a picture with words; punctuation

Assignment: “Paint a picture with words”

•         Choose a painting from the 19th century

•         Your job is to paint the picture with your words

•         Do not go beyond and provide context or any further information

•         Rely solely on your ability to describe what you see; use the formal elements list to help you

•         Be specific about colors, tones, variations, light, composition, placement, perspective, space, etc.

•         Do not include an image (other than in your Works Cited) so that the reader’s only information about what the painting looks like is from your words

Simple sentence:

simple subject, simple predicate, compound subject, compound predicate = no commas

Ex: The bodies appear to float in the frame but are rendered with a strong sense of weight and mass.

Compound sentence:

Two or more independent clauses connected by a coordinator or conjunctive adverb [think if you can say each part as its own sentence or not]

Coordinators (for, and, but, or, so, yet) are preceded by a comma

Ex: The bodies appear to float, but they are rendered with a strong sense of weight and mass.

Conjunctive adverbs (however, nevertheless, also, hence, thus, therefore…) are preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma

Ex: The bodies appear to float; however, they are rendered with a strong sense of weight and mass.

Lists:

Lists have commas between each item, unless there are only two items

Ex: Kalina and Ioan are my students.

Ex: Ralitsa, Christina, Ana Maria, Antoaneta, and Aleksandra are also in Art History.

Modifying/specifying

If you specify a person/place/thing in the middle of the sentence, put commas on either side

Ex: The two teachers, Katherine and Rob, worked across the hall from each other.

Not: The two teachers, Katherine and Rob worked across the hall from each other.