Twelve characters. One precinct.
Every Punctuation Department member has a beat, a specialty, and a part of every sentence to enforce. Pick an officer and clock in.
The department anthem. Every officer gets a verse.
How every lesson works
- 1 Learn
Meet the idea with the character who teaches it.
- 2 Assess
A quick check to see what landed.
- 3 Practice
Put it to work until it sticks.
- 4 Create
Use it in the student's own writing.
- 5 Recognition
The character signs off on what was earned.
Meet the Punctuation Department.
Three units, one department. The Precinct works the sentence boundaries, the Courthouse handles quotes and asides, and the K-9 Unit joins and breaks.
The Precinct
Beat cops · 6 membersThey patrol the boundary of every sentence: where it ends, where it pauses, and where one thought joins the next.
Ends statements and commands; also works abbreviations.
Closes every direct question on the beat.
Emphasis, used with discipline: one at a time.
Series, pauses, and the comma before a FANBOYS conjunction.
Joins two independent clauses without a FANBOYS conjunction.
The great organizer: lists, time, and titles.
The Courthouse
Legal team · 4 membersWhen a quote, a contraction, or an aside needs adjudicating, the case goes to the Courthouse.
Contractions and possessives.
Direct quotes, dialogue, and where the punctuation goes.
Afterthoughts and asides (like this one).
Edits a quote from the inside. [sic]
The K-9 Unit
Police dogs · 2 membersOne joins, one breaks. Hyphen makes two words one; Dash throws the spotlight on whatever comes next.
The one job no single officer owns, so the Mayor takes the case himself: capital letters to open a sentence, on names, and on titles.
Every lesson here is mapped to your state's standards, grade by grade.