Middle Sister is working on a school report for music class--a biography of Billie Holiday.
Since my degree is in English, my children take advantage of Mom's Editing Service before turning in their reports. I show them where they need to fix spelling, punctuation or sentence fragments, and sometimes point out spots where something seems to be missing.
Last night she left a draft of her report at my desk, and this morning she looked at it and complained.
"Why can't I say it this way?"
"It's a sentence fragment if you say it that way. Read it out loud."
"....Oh, yeah. It is. But I don't like it the way you fixed it. It's more boring that way!"
Apparently sentence fragments give sixth-grade papers that little extra something. I hope her literature teacher doesn't introduce e. e. cummings to the class anytime soon, or she'll stop using capital letters too.
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