Language and Grammar: Use Appropriate Language

Role-Play Work with a partner. Imagine you are one of the singers or musicians in the selection. Your partner discusses your music with you as a friend and then as a reporter from a serious news program. Switch roles. Speak in complete sentences.

Mr. Perez, what do you like most about mariachi music?

I feel a connection to Mexico when I play.

Writing and Grammar: Write About Music

Study the Models When you write about music you like, you want to share your ideas. Be sure to use complete sentences so your readers do not become confused.

Not Ok

Bluegrass music began in the southern United States. Some common bluegrass instruments. Banjo, guitar, and fiddle. A blend of English, Irish, Scottish, and African American music. It is sometimes called “mountain music.” Because early bluegrass musicians wrote songs about their life in the mountains and the country.

The writer confuses the reader by using fragments instead of complete sentences.

Ok

Bluegrass music began in the southern United States. Some common bluegrass instruments include the banjo, guitar, and fiddle.Bluegrassis a blend of English, Irish,Scottish, and African American music. It is sometimes called “mountain music” because early bluegrass musicians wrote songs about their life in the mountains and the country.

The writer fixes fragments by adding missing subjects and missing verbs in predicates.

Revise It Work with a partner to revise this passage. Fix the fragments.

Mariachi is music from Mexico. Very popular now among young people. Learning to sing and play the songs. Mexican American kids are especially interested in this traditional music. They learn the words to the old songs in Spanish. Although many of them do not speak Spanish at home.

Illustration of a pen icon WRITE ON YOUR OWN What kind of music do you like? Write a paragraph about it. Make sure every sentence expresses a complete thought.

REMEMBER

To fix a fragment, you can

  • • add a subject or a predicate

  • • combine sentences.