Punctuation

Mississippi

Suggest improvements for the highlighted problem area: In the debate about the source of the Mississippi, we heard three student's opinions: Nathan: It isnt any mystery that the source of the Mississippi is the northeast corner of Minnesota. In 1832, Henry Schoolcraft proved that the river began with springs under Lake Itasca. Hillary: Nathan, your wrong. Actually, the Missouri River is longer than the upper Mississippi and has a larger area from which it collects water. Therefore, the true source of the Mississippi is the Rocky Mountain region of western Montana. Cecil: Hillary and Nathan's ideas fail to recognize the big picture. The waters of the Mississippi come from rain clouds that float over 22 states and 2 provinces in North America. Answer: - Apostrophe for Contraction - The apostrophe is also used to indicate a contraction of two words into one word, to reflect the way we say the words. The apostrophe is normally put in place of the letters that are removed to form the contraction. A word in our opening paragraph is missing this apostrophe: It isnt any mystery that the source of the Mississippi is the northeast corner of Minnesota. Few people are so formal as to say, "is not." Most people say, "isn't." To put in print what people really say, we need to show the contraction with an apostrophe: It isn't any mystery that the source of the Mississippi is the northeast corner of Minnesota. Note how the omitted letters are replaced by an apostrophe in the following commonly-used contractions: I am = I'm she will = she'll it is = it's we are = we're you would = you'd is not = isn't do not = don't does not = doesn't would not = wouldn't cannot = can't

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