Interjections

Students are usually asked to do two things: insert an interjection into a blank at the beginning of a sentence (though I did have one text that sometimes asked for it to be placed at the end, which seemed unusual), and punctuate/capitalize a sentence correctly when using an interjection. Students need to be reminded that interjections carry meaning. You wouldn't say, "Yuck! I see you bought a new car!" or "Hurray! I had to take my dog to the emergency vet this morning!" so yes, interjections must be chosen with some care. Secondly, students are often asked to include the punctuation after the interjection. If they will look at the first word on the printed sentence in the text, they really shouldn't make too many errors. If the first word is lower case, put a comma after the interjection. If the first word is capitalized, use an exclamation point. Believe it or not, we are at the end of one chapter!