Exam 1: Writing Effective Paragraphs

Instructions: Each question below is an entry for a Works Cited page. Select Correct if the entry is correctly formatted according to MLA guidelines or Incorrect if the entry is not correctly formatted. Hellmich, Nanci. Outlook on Obesity Is Pretty Grim. USA Today. 30 Aug. 2011: 6D. Print.

Instructions: Find the complete subject and the complete verb in each sentence. Then select the letter of the answer that contains both the subject and the verb. She did not hear the answer to the question.

Instructions: Each question below is a plan for a narrative paragraph. Events in each plan are not in correct chronological order. For each plan, select the letter of the answer that numbers the events in the proper time sequence. In late 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean sent a destructive tsunami, or huge waves, racing toward many countries. ____ That Indonesian quake displaced a massive volume of water, pushing it outward in all directions. ____ On December 26, 2004, at 2:59 p.m., a powerful earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor off the coast of Sumatra, an Indonesian island. ____ High tides surged onshore as late as sixteen hours after the earthquake occurred in South Africa and other countries thousands of miles away. ____ At 4:45 p.m., waves began pounding the coasts of Sri Lanka, Thailand, and India. ____ At 3:15 p.m., gigantic waves slammed into the northern coast of Sumatra.

Instructions: Below is a source followed by passage(s) from student papers. If the student has summarized, directly quoted, or indirectly quoted the source correctly, select Correct. If you believe the source is incorrectly summarized or plagiarized, select Incorrect. Human communication depends largely on signs in the form of written or spoken words, images, or gestures. These symbols are conscious and explicit representations of reality of objects, actions, and concepts in the world around us. But there is another aspect of symbolism that is equally important though less explicit: the side that relates to our inner psychological and spiritual world. Within this inner world, a symbol can represent some deep intuitive wisdom that eludes direct expression. Fontana, David. The Secret Language of Symbols . San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993: 9-10. Print. Student version: Symbols serve two purposes, according to David Fontana. They are, on the one hand, conscious and explicit representations of reality of objects, actions, and concepts in the world around us. On the other hand, they can represent some deep intuitive wisdom that eludes direct expression (9-10).

Instructions: The following sentences form a paragraph. Select the correct word for each blank. Then a snow tank ____ dirty shavings.

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 convince someone that your town or city is a great place to live, you could say that

Instructions: The following sentences form a paragraph. For each item, select the underlined part that contains an error. Likewise, someone facing a big decision or a family problem might seek the help of their wolf fetish.

Instructions: Select the answer that correct joins each pair of simple sentences with conjunctions or conjunctive adverbs and is punctuated correctly. Marcia wanted to hire the actor. She was concerned about his bad temper.

Instructions: The following sentences form an essay. If the sentence contains a pronoun error, select Pronoun error. If the sentence is free of pronoun errors, select Correct. I rolled out the dough on a cookie sheet and added tomato sauce along with toppings that included mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and sausage.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer. The bottoms up proofreading technique involves reading your paper one sentence at a time,

Instructions: In each of the following sentences, a blank space appears where the verb should be. Select the letter of the correct past tense verb. Michele ____ several cartons of books to the pickup truck.

Instructions: Read the following sentence(s) carefully. Then select the correct adjective or adverb in parentheses. Juan considered childhood to be the ( happier , happiest ) time of his life.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correctly punctuated sentence. Which sentence is correctly punctuated?

Instructions: The following sentences form a paragraph. Select the answer that correctly identifies the underlined portion of the sentence as wordy or trite. The sun is an example of a medium heat, medium weight star. The hottest stars are blue in color , and the coolest stars are red.

Instructions: Select the letter of the correct answer for each of the following question(s). Failing to give proper credit to an author whose words or ideas you have used is called

Instructions: Select the sentence that uses concise, fresh, and exact language. Which sentence uses concise, fresh, and exact language?

Instructions: Read the following sentence(s) carefully. Then select the correct adjective or adverb in parentheses. We got to know each other ( quick , quickly ).

Instructions: For each of the following sentences, choose the correct pronoun to fill in the blank. Select the letter of the correct answer. The cab driver told Vic and ____ that traffic on the bridge was heavy at this time of day.

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) Bottled water is not necessarily any purer or healthier than the water you can get from your sink. (2) In fact, in many cities and towns, the testing requirements for tap water are much stricter than those for bottled water, and the bottled water may actually contain contaminants that the tap water is not allowed to have. (3) Plus, bottled water usually lacks fluoride, an important mineral that is added to tap water. (4) Another reason to drink tap water is the waste generated by consumption of bottled water. (5) While all of those empty plastic bottles can be recycled, most people just toss them into the trash, and they end up in landfills already overflowing with garbage. (6) Recycling glass, newspaper, and aluminum will also help to minimize America s waste problem. (7) Finally, bottled water costs a lot more than tap water. (8) In fact, it s often about 300 times more expensive.

Instructions: Read the paragraph below and answer the question(s) that follow. (1) We rarely get tired when we are doing something interesting and exciting. (2) For example, I recently took a vacation in the Canadian Rockies up around Lake Louise. (3) I spent several days trout fishing along Coral Creek, fighting my way through brush higher than my head, stumbling over logs, struggling through fallen timber yet after eight hours of this, I was not exhausted. (4) Why? (5) Because I was excited, exhilarated. (6) I had a sense of high achievement: six cutthroat trout. Dale Carnegie, Banishing Boredom on the Job How many examples does the writer use to develop the topic sentence?