Spanish Language Arts.4.11.D.iii

During the editing stage of the writing process, students further improve their drafts and often prepare for publishing by correcting conventions errors. Ensuring that the standard rules of the Spanish language have been applied correctly helps the audience to more easily comprehend the information because they do not have to interrupt their thinking to determine what the writer intended to say.

Spanish articles indicate the gender (feminine/ masculine) and number (singular/ plural) of a noun. Students should be able to use the correct gender-article agreement in both singular and plural forms. Spanish articles can be both definite and indefinite. Definite articles indicate specific nouns in both feminine/ masculine and singular/ plural forms. Singular definite articles are la (feminine) and el (masculine). For example, Rolando vive en la casa de enfrente; Los niños encontraron el anillo de María en el patio. Plural definite articles are las (feminine) and los (masculine). For example, El verano pasado las amigas de mi hermana se fueron de campamento; Los maestros de mi escuela juegan en un equipo de voleibol. Indefinite articles refer to non-specific nouns that can also be both feminine/ masculine (una/ un) and singular/ plural (uno/ unos). The following sentences exemplify indefinite articles in singular form. Una señora le ayudó a mi abuelo a cruzar la calle; El esqueleto del dinosaurio está en un museo de San Antonio. The following are some examples of indefinite articles in plural form, Mis abuelos viven a unas calles de mi casa; Dentro de unos días comenzará la competencia de futbol.

Unlike a common noun that names general items (e.g., amigos, estados, edificios), proper nouns name specific people, places, or things, and they always begin with a capital letter (e.g., Víctor, Florida, Torre Eiffel). Students should understand that if they do not correctly capitalize proper nouns, they risk their readers not understanding that an unfamiliar word in the text is meant to refer to something specific and is not a misspelling or misuse of some other intended word. For example, if a student writes El señor del campo prefiere desayunar temprano the reader may believe that the sentence refers to a country person (del campo) and not to the last name del Campo that the writer is referring to. The correct sentence should be, El señor del Campo prefiere desayunar temprano.

standard rules of the Spanish language, including written mechanics such as punctuation, capitalization, spelling, paragraphing, etc. and written/oral grammar such as parts of speech, word order, subject-verb agreement, and sentence structure