Chain Paragraphs

1. Enter your team name on the board.

2. One member of the team should write the first sentence of a paragraph and pass the paragraph to the right. The next member will write the next sentence and again pass the paragraph to the right. This process should continue until the paragraph is 10 sentences long.

a. The first sentence should be a commitment sentence; it must make a promise that the rest of the paragraph will develop.

b. Narrative paragraphs are very easy to write and thus they are prohibited in this game. Paragraphs that tell a story will receive no points.

3. The first team to complete the paragraph should award itself two points on the board. The next team to complete a paragraph should award itself one point and announce that the other teams must stop writing.

4. Scoring. Teams should exchange paragraphs, and the scoring team will score the paragraph, reading it aloud and awarding it one point for each coherent sentence (after the commitment sentence). Enter the total points earned at the top of each paragraph and circle the number.

a. Coherence can be judged by following the promise of the commitment sentence; if a sentence does not develop the promise, the paragraph does not develop the promise and has lost coherence. It will sound as if the writer has started a new paragraph.

b. Once the paragraph has lost coherence, it cannot be regained, so no more points can be awarded. For example, perhaps the first three sentences develop the commitment sentence, but the fourth one does not. The team will only receive three points, even though sentences 5-10 develop the promise.

c. Give the scored paragraph back to the team that composed it and enter the score on the board.

5. Appealing scores: Composing teams may appeal scores awarded to their paragraphs. An appeal is filed by slamming the paragraph in question on the teacher table.

a. Appeals are judged by members of teams not involved in composing or scoring the paragraph. Teams may consult on issues, but each member of the judging teams must vote individually.

b. The appealing team will explain the number of points they think the paragraph should have been awarded and why.

c. The scoring team will defend their scoring of the paragraph.

d. Rebuttals and questions are allowed.

e. If the appeal is denied, the appealing team suffers a three-point penalty.

f. If the appeal is granted, the appealing team is awarded the extra points earned plus one point for a successful appeal; the scoring team is penalized twice the number of extra points earned (for unsportsmanlike behavior).

Copyright ©1993 Patrick Hartwell and Robert H. Bentley. Permission is granted for noncommercial educational use, with acknowledgement of copyright.

Patrick Hartwell-Indiana University of Pennsylvania

The Great Punctuation Game

1. Form teams of three or four. Name your team on the scoreboard, and select a magazine from those at the front table.

2. Mark two sentences in the magazine. The first sentence should have: one colon (:) OR one semi colon (;) OR one dash (--), plus associated commas. The second sentence should have: two or more colons, semi colons, and dashes (and parentheses may also be used), plus associated commas. Write these sentence on the board, omitting all punctuation. In fairness, write in word-internal punctuation, like apostrophes and hyphens (as in word-internal), and include quotation marks and italics, since they aren't predictable. Note the magazine and page numbers of your sentences so you won't lose your place.

3. Teams will project their sentences in turn, and other teams will guess the punctuation of the sentence. One member of the team will go to the board, read the sentence, and enter the guesses of the other teams. The other members of the team will quietly keep score, announcing the actual punctuation of the sentences--and the scores awarded--only after all teams have guessed.

4. A team that matches exactly the punctuation of the sentence will be awarded two points; a team that comes "close enough" will be awarded one point. (Teams are encouraged to be liberal in the awarding of one point.) If no team exactly guesses the punctuation of the sentences, the team projecting the sentence earns two points.