Exam 1: Writing Effective Paragraphs

Instructions: Check the following paragraph(s) for unity. Select the number of the sentence that does not belong in the paragraph. Identify the sentence that does not belong. (1) In nineteenth-century America, chocolate was a rare, expensive treat. (2) It was Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey Foods, who made chocolate affordable and widely available. (3) He had built a successful caramel-making company before chocolate-making first fascinated him in 1893. (4) For years, he worked at perfecting a recipe for making milk chocolate, a process which up until then had been the secret of Swiss chocolate makers. (5) Hershey experimented with different combinations of milk, sugar, and cocoa until he found the right one. (6) Then, using mass-production techniques, he was able to make and sell large quantities of individually wrapped, affordably priced chocolate. (7) For decades after Hershey began manufacturing his Hershey bars in 1904, the candy cost only a nickel. (8) In the early 1900s, a nickel also bought a ride on the New York subway.

Instructions: Select the letter of the list of words that should be capitalized. Tanglewood, a scenic retreat in the berkshire mountains, serves as the summer residence of the boston symphony orchestra.

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the question(s) that follow. (1) The federal minimum wage should be increased to at least $10.00 per hour. (2) First of all, this increase will help families who are living in poverty. (3) Not only will it provide these people with a fairer and more decent rate of pay for their labor, but it will also decrease their need for welfare, food stamps, and other forms of government support. (4) Increasing the minimum wage may also stimulate job growth. (5) According to one 2006 study published by the Fiscal Policy Institute, employment in small businesses grew faster in states that boosted their minimum wage above the federal minimum than in states requiring only the federal minimum. (6) This report also found that total job growth was faster in the states with higher minimum wages. (7) That may be because workers who earn more can spend more, which stimulates the economy. How many arguments support the topic sentence?

Instructions: For each of the following sentences, select correct if the sentence is punctuated correctly, fragment if it is a fragment, run-on if it is a run-on, and comma splice if it is a comma splice. Being an excellent way to cook meat for a large gathering of people.

Instructions: The following sentences form a passage. Select the correct noun for each blank. With excellent hitting and fast feet, Robinson earned his place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame; he also earned his reputation as a sports ____ for being the first black baseball player in the American major leagues.

Instructions: Select the letter of the answer that correctly identifies the subject and complete verb in each sentence. I should have taken more Caribbean literature courses.

Instructions: Read each of the following essay introductions. Then select the letter of the method the writer used to begin the composition. The essay below begins with a(n) Mario Conley joined a gang when he was just 12 years old. Drawn to the power, money, respect, and loyal friends that the gang members in his neighborhood seemed to have, Mario soon became one of them. Soon afterward, though, he learned about the dark side of gang membership. His fellow gang members pressured him to skip school, drink alcohol, do drugs, steal, lie, and fight. By the time he was sixteen, he had already been arrested ten times for drug crimes, assault, and vandalism. By age 18, he was serving a 20-year-sentence for shooting and killing a rival gang member. Mario s experience is typical of young gang members, who almost always wind up dead or in prison. Today, still behind bars, Mario advises others to avoid being seduced by the gang life. Joining a gang is one of the worst mistakes a young person can make.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct verb or verbs for each sentence. Because of this monumental tragedy, people all over the world ( know , knows ) what a tsunami is.

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and then answer the following question(s) by selecting the letter of the correct response. Coffee drinkers should seriously consider switching to tea. According to the latest research, the ingredients in tea may help people stay slim. When Taiwanese researchers studied 1,000 people, they found that the people who drank two cups of any kind of tea every week for ten years had 20 percent less body fat than people who didn t drink tea. But there s an even better reason to switch. As it turns out, tea lowers the risk of serious disease, such as some cancers, heart attack, and stroke. In 2003, scientists found out that after just three weeks of drinking five cups of black tea per day, fifteen people cut their cholesterol by 7 percent and their bad LDL cholesterol by 11 percent. Australian researchers studying 218 women found that tea reduced blood pressure; in fact, the more tea a person drank, the more blood pressure dropped. Coffee does not offer any of these health benefits, so tea is clearly the better beverage choice. The purpose of this paragraph is to

Instructions: In each of the following sentences, a blank space appears where a verb should be. Select the letter of the correct helping verb and past participle form. Marina s mother ____ her diary more than once.

Instructions: Identify the cause and the effect contained in each of the following statements. Being an only child tends to encourage the development of positive character traits like leadership and maturity.

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the question(s) that follow. (1) The wide availability of canned, frozen, and precooked foods has definitely improved people s lives by freeing up time that used to be spent preparing meals. (2) However, these convenience foods have also had some negative consequences. (3) One effect has been a rise in obesity. (4) Because plentiful convenience foods need little to no preparation time, many people have developed a tendency to eat too much and put on too much weight. (5) These foods also tend to contain unhealthy ingredients like preservatives and high amounts of salt. (6) Therefore, people who rely too heavily on them can find themselves with health problems such as heart disease. (7) Another negative result of convenience foods has been the death of family dinner time. (8) Now that people can grab prepackaged foods on the run, they just don t try as hard to sit down to a meal as a family. (9) Convenience foods have also contributed to Americans rushed lifestyle overall. (10) Unfortunately, when it became easy to just microwave a burrito and keep going, sitting down and eating a relaxed meal seemed like a waste of precious time. Select the number of the topic sentence in the paragraph above.

Instructions: Read the definition below and answer the question(s) that follow. A phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by strong, persistent, illogical fear of a specific object or situation. The statement above is a

Instructions: Each of the following sentences states what you are trying to persuade someone to do. Beneath each sentence are four reasons that attempt to convince this person that he or she should take this particular course of action. Select the letter of the reason that seems irrelevant, illogical, or untrue. If you wanted to persuade parents to enroll their children in piano lessons, you could say that

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following questions. Which of the following belongs in a summary?

Instructions: The following sentences form a passage. For each one, select correct if the sentence is punctuated correctly, fragment if it is a fragment, run-on if it is a run-on, and comma splice if it is a comma splice. He loves to meet with students.

Instructions: The following sentences form a passage. For each one, select correct if the sentence is punctuated correctly, fragment if it is a fragment, run-on if it is a run-on, and comma splice if it is a comma splice. Have given him some of his best ideas.

Instructions: Below is a plan for a contrast paragraph. The points of contrast in the second column do not follow the same order as the points in the first column. In addition, one detail is missing. Childhood and adulthood Childhood Adulthood 1. More free time ____ More work than fun 2. Lots of fun and games ____ ________________________ 3. Little experience or knowledge ____ Less time to do the things you most like to do 4. Few responsibilities ____ Greater wisdom 5. Parents, teachers, and other adults make the decisions ____ Obligations include a job, a house, bills, a spouse, kids Select the letter of the answer that correctly numbers the points in the second column to match those in the first.

Instructions: Each of the following sentences tells what you are trying to persuade someone to do. Beneath each sentence are four reasons that attempt to convince the reader that he or she should take this particular course of action. Select the letter of the reason that seems irrelevant, illogical, or untrue. If you wanted to persuade someone to buy and use a couple of reusable cloth bags for transporting groceries home from the store, you could say that

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the question(s) that follow. (1) Street skateboarding and vert skateboarding differ in several ways. (2) Street skateboarding takes place in outdoor public areas where there are staircases, benches, walls, and sidewalks. (3) In contrast, vert skateboarding usually takes place in skate parks with ramps or bowls. (4) Another major difference is the tricks performed in each type of skateboarding. (5) Street skaters use a style called the grind, which involves scraping their boards axles against objects such as stairway handrails. (6) They also perform tricks that involve kicking the board to flip it into the air. (7) Vert skaters, on the other hand, use the steep walls of the ramps or bowls to pick up speed and gain air time at the edges. (8) While airborne, they perform different flips and spins. (9) To achieve these tricks, they use boards that are wider and flatter than street boards, which have upturned noses and tails to aid kicking. Does this paragraph compare, contrast, or both?