To be or not to be....a sentence!


When you read a newspaper or magazine, you may notice that some of the headlines are not complete sentences. For example:

"Air Quality Improving"

What is missing?

  • Proper punctuation(In a normal sentence there would be periods, and only the proper nouns and first words would be capitalized) This is because the headline is a title. Titles have different puntuation rules.
  • The complete verb. When you have an "ing" verb, you need to have "is", "are", "was", or "were" to make the sentence complete. 



Assignment:

Go to The Desert Trail or The Hi-Desert Star. Select ten headlines and write them in the chart below. You can also do this assignment with any other newspaper or magazine. Decide whether or not the sentences are complete.If they are not complete, write down what is missing. Be prepared to justify your answers when you share with the class.
 

#
Headline
Is the
headline a 
complete 
sentence?
 If not, what is missing?
1.      
2.      
3.      
4.      
5.      
6.      
7.      
8.      
9.      
10.      

 

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