Question

place semicolons, hyphens, and colons where they are needed in the following paragraphs.
1 to make myself feel better, i made a mental list of my talents i
2 could touch my nose with the tip of my tongue i could drink a glass of
3 water while standing on my head and, as an encore, i could sing \the
4 star spangled banner\ like donald duck. in the smarts department, i
5 knew i wasnt the dullest crayon in the box my grades were bs and cs.
6 yikes! it was 744. i walked casually into the room however, i
7 immediately looked at the front of the room. i didnt want to make eye
8 contact with any of the kids. i wasnt ready. i looked at the blackboard
9 the teacher had written the following letter

Explanation:

• Colon Usage:
• In the sentence “I looked at the blackboard the teacher had written the following letter”, a colon is needed after “blackboard” to introduce what was written. So it becomes “I looked at the blackboard: the teacher had written the following letter”.
• Semicolon Usage:
• In “To make myself feel better, I made a mental list of my talents I could touch my nose with the tip of my tongue I could drink a glass of water while standing on my head and, as an encore, I could sing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ like Donald Duck”, semicolons should separate the different talents. It becomes “To make myself feel better, I made a mental list of my talents: I could touch my nose with the tip of my tongue; I could drink a glass of water while standing on my head; and, as an encore, I could sing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ like Donald Duck”.
• In “In the smarts department, I knew I wasn’t the dullest crayon in the box my grades were B’s and C’s”, a semicolon is needed between the two independent clauses. So it is “In the smarts department, I knew I wasn’t the dullest crayon in the box; my grades were B’s and C’s”.
• In “I walked casually into the room however, I immediately looked at the front of the room”, a semicolon should be used before “however” (since “however” is a conjunctive adverb). It becomes “I walked casually into the room; however, I immediately looked at the front of the room”.

Answer:

1. To make myself feel better, I made a mental list of my talents: I could touch my nose with the tip of my tongue; I could drink a glass of water while standing on my head; and, as an encore, I could sing “The Star Spangled Banner” like Donald Duck.
2. In the smarts department, I knew I wasn’t the dullest crayon in the box; my grades were B’s and C’s.
3. Yikes! It was 744. I walked casually into the room; however, I immediately looked at the front of the room. I didn’t want to make eye contact with any of the kids. I wasn’t ready. I looked at the blackboard: the teacher had written the following letter.