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• I still see many, many spelling and capitalization errors! Be sure you go through your writing with the proverbial fine-toothed comb! If you check your grading rubric, you'll notice that "Mechanics" are worth 20% of your final grade, and in order to get full points in that category, you cannot have more than three errors TOTAL in your entire presentation! If you have more than five errors in spelling, capitalization and / or punctuation, you will be in the very bottom category. Please take this seriously: lots of spelling & capitalization errors can turn a A+ presentation into a C presentation. Don't let it happen to you!
  
• Don't start a sentence with auch - it sounds awkward!
  
• Remember words like favorite color, favorite subject, etc. are one word in German! For example: Lieblingsfächer
  
• Be very careful about the endings on mein when you are talking about members of your family! I saw several references to meine Vater, meine Bruder, etc. Those endings are incorrect!
  
• If you are speaking about a woman's profession, be sure that profession ends in -in: Lehrerin, Schauspielerin, Bäckerin, Professorin, etc.
  
• Ich mag = I like
  Ich mache = I do
  
• Check each and every sentence that contains a modal verb and make sure it ends in an infinitive verb!
  
• The words und and oder can be used to combine sentences and make your writing sound less choppy. Keep in mind that these little words are like pieces of tape: they simply stick sentences together, but they do not change where the verb goes in either sentence.

  • Correct: Ich habe viel Freizeit und ich gehe oft aus.
    Incorrect: Ich habe viel Freizeit und gehe ich oft aus.
    

• If you are writing in the past tense and using the verbs gehen, ausgehen, fahren or bleiben: check to make sure that you are using "sein" as a helping verb! Don't use haben!
  
• Sure to capitalize all nouns!
  
• Remember that golf, tennis, basketball, etc. are all nouns and must be capitalized in German!
  
• If you have used any of these prepositional phrases with mit, check to see that you have the correct endings:
  • Mit meinen Freunden
  • Mit meiner Familie
  • Mit meiner Mutter
  • Mit meinem Vater
  • Mit meinen Geschwistern

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