Deck 2: Basic Tools of Writing

Question 1

Choose the correct word that should begin the following sentence:
_____ time to feed the cat.

A) Its
B) It's
C) Its'

Answer 1

It's

Question 2

The major use of punctuation in writing is to

A) slow the reader down
B) bring the reader to a stop
C) help the reader understand the writing

Answer 2

help the reader understand the writing

Question 3

Choose the sentence that is correct:

A) Everyone ate their cake.
B) Everyone ate there cake.
C) Everyone ate his or her cake.

Answer 3

Everyone ate his or her cake.

Question 4

Which of the following sentences uses the active voice?

A) The ball was thrown by John.
B) He was taken to the hospital by an ambulance
C) The pitcher stared at the hitter with hatred in his eyes.

Question 5

Which of the following sentences is correctly punctuated?

A) The man went into town and he bought a car.
B) The man went into town, and he bought a car.
C) After the man went to town he bought a car.

Question 6

The underlined phrase in the following sentence is an example of what? John, my brother, left home for the Army.

A) preposition
B) gerund
C) appositive

Question 7

What kind of error is contained in the sentence below? The polise arrived just as the shooting ended.

A) Cliché
B) Spelling error
C) Error in agreement
D) Redundancy
E) Punctuation error

Question 8

What is the correct punctuation for a direct quote?

A) "The Congress should pass this legislation" the president said.
B) "The Congress should pass this legislation", the president said.
C) "The Congress should pass this legislation," the president said. D) "The Congress should pass this legislation." The president said.

Question 9

Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly?

A) The cat ate its food, and then it went outside.
B) The cat ate its food and then it went outside.
C) The cat ate its food and, then, it went outside.

Question 10

Dr. Smith, an all-around nice guy, lectures on Monday mornings. The underlined material is:

A) an appositive phrase
B) an example of parallelism
C) a dependent clause

Question 11

Which of the sentences below represents a comma splice.

A) George could not make it, so we left without him.
B) George could not make it, we left without him.
C) George could not make it; we left without him.

Question 12

Looking through the window, the couch is on the left. The sentence above is an example of

A) a comma splice
B) a gerund
C) a dangling participle

Question 13

What is the definition of a non-essential clause?

A) a group of words that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence and may be set off from
The rest of the sentence by commas
B) a group of words that is essential to the meaning of the sentence but is set off by commas
C) a group of words that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence but must not be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas

Question 14

What is wrong with the sentence below?
Having just finished the exam, George saw the sky and it looked bright and wonderful.

A) AP style error
B) punctuation error
C) pronoun-antecedent agreement

Question 15

Which of the statements below is correct?

A) Grammatical mistakes are ok as long as the meaning of the writing is clear.
B) Grammar rules change so rapidly that no one can write something that grammatically perfect.
C) Everything a professional writer writes should be grammatically perfect.

Question 16

In which voice is the verb in the sentence below? Jim was asked by his closet friend to be a groomsman.

A) active
B) passive
C) subjective