Question 1

Identify the faulty construction in the following sentence: Walking down the street,the trees were breath-taking.

Accepted Answer

A)Modifying phrases that are "dangling," have no connection to the subject of the sentence.

Question 2

"Chicago has the most modern,up-to-date transport system in the United States." Why is this statement less concise?

Accepted Answer

B)In this sentence, "modern" and "up-to-date" are double modifiers having the same meaning. Hence, one of these words is redundant.

Question 3

Which of the following includes a dangling modifier?

Accepted Answer

A)"Situated in the break room" is a dangling modifier because the word that it modifies in the sentence is "employees." However, it should modify "vending machines." Modifying phrases that are "dangling" have no connection to the subject of the sentence.

Question 4

Which of the following suggestions will NOT make your message more concise?

Accepted Answer

C)Be careful not to leave modifying phrases "dangling," with no connection to the subject of the sentence. Double-modifiers that have the same meaning make writing less concise.

Question 5

Which of the following sentences uses hedging?

Accepted Answer

D)Sometimes you have to hedge or qualify a statement when you aren't entirely sure of something, when you can't predict an outcome, or when you don't want to sound arrogant.

Question 6

"The children collected together shells,stones,and leaves for their art projects." Which of the following should be eliminated to make the sentence more concise?

Accepted Answer

D)In some word combinations, the words tend to say the same thing. These are known as redundancies. "Collected" means the same as "collected together," and so "together" can be safely eliminated.

Question 7

Use the word "can" instead of the phrase "you have the capability" to make your sentence more concise and avoid ________.

Accepted Answer

C)Some combinations of words have one-word equivalents that are more efficient. Make your documents tighter by removing unnecessary words, phrases, and sentences.

Question 8

Jacob's teacher asked him to rewrite his book report to make it clear and concise.He asks his friends for advice about editing his document.Which of the following recommendations is useful for Jacob?

Accepted Answer

D)The subject and predicate should be placed as close together as possible, as should modifiers and the words they modify.

Question 9

Which of the following is recommended for writing that is easier to read and understand?

Accepted Answer

E)Making your writing parallel means expressing two or more similar ideas using the same grammatical structure. Doing so helps your audience understand that the ideas are related, and are of similar importance. Parallel patterns are also easier to read.

Question 10

Malcolm has to pitch an idea for a new ad campaign to a demanding client.He needs to sound confident about his idea and needs to avoid stating a judgment as a fact.Which of the following should Malcolm avoid?

Accepted Answer

B)Hedging is appropriate when you can't be absolutely sure of a statement, but excessive hedging undermines authority. If Malcolm wants to sound confident, he must avoid hedging.

Question 11

In any document,headings in a series should be ________.

Accepted Answer

D)Whatever types of headings you choose, keep them brief and grammatically parallel.

Question 12

Identify the faulty construction in the following sentence: Our students receive encouragement to improve their performance.

Accepted Answer

D)Word endings such as -ion, -tion, -ing, -ment, -ant, -ent, -ence, -ance, and -ency "camouflage" a verb by changing it into a noun or an adjective-which requires you to add another verb in order to complete your sentence.

Question 13

Which of the following sentences is the most concise?

Accepted Answer

C)This sentence avoids redundancies and communicates all the relevant information.

Question 14

Identify the structure used in the following sentence: Traditional medicine emphasizes holistic healing,whereas modern medicine focuses on specialized areas.

Accepted Answer

B)Making your writing parallel means expressing two or more similar ideas using the same grammatical structure. Doing so helps your audience understand that the ideas are related, and are of similar importance. Parallel patterns are also easier to read.

Question 15

Descriptive headings ________.

Accepted Answer

B)Descriptive headings simply identify a topic without suggesting anything more.

Question 16

Which of the following will identify a hedging sentence?

Accepted Answer

B)Hedging is appropriate when you can't be absolutely sure of a statement, but excessive hedging undermines authority. Hedging means pulling back from making an absolutely certain, definitive statement about a topic.

Question 17

As a reporter,Emily often files stories before all the facts are known.To avoid legal repercussions,Emily uses words and phrases like "alleged," "it is believed," and "apparent" to qualify statements.This is known as ________.

Accepted Answer

C)Sometimes you have to hedge or qualify a statement when you aren't entirely sure of something, when you can't predict an outcome, or when you don't want to sound arrogant. However, hedging generally requires more words and can weaken your writing if overdone.

Question 18

Which of the following is true for writing concise sentences?

Accepted Answer

E)The subject and predicate of a sentence should be placed as close together as possible so that readers don't have to read the sentence twice to figure out who did what.

Question 19

Informative headings ________.

Accepted Answer

A)Informative headings are self-contained, give the reader some context, and may point toward any conclusions or recommendations that you offer in the section.

Question 20

Which of the following sentences uses unparallel construction?

Accepted Answer

C)"Was turning" is not parallel with "opened" and "checked." Making your writing parallel means expressing two or more similar ideas using the same grammatical structure. Parallelism can be achieved by repeating a pattern in words, phrases, clauses, or entire sentences.

Quiz 5: Completing Business Messages