ACCUPLACER ESL Language Use case studies
ACCUPLACER ESL Language Use · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The ACCUPLACER ESL Language Use test is a placement instrument, not a licensing credential. Colleges and universities use it, often alongside the other ESL placement tests in the same family, to estimate how well a prospective student handles written English and to decide which developmental or English-as-a-second-language course that student should begin with. The ACCUPLACER ESL Language Use case studies are 5 cases and about 2,930 words.
1The Community Garden Notice: Finding the Real Subject
At a tutoring session, a student brings a draft notice for a community garden. The draft contains four sentences: (1) "The group of volunteers who signed up in March meet at the north gate on Saturdays." (2) "Each of the raised beds need to be watered twice a week." (3) "Neither the coordinator nor the volunteers has received the new key." (4) "The tools that the city donated was stored in the shed." The student insists the sentences "sound fine" because in every case the verb sits right next to a plural noun.
483 words, about 2 min2A 25-Word Transit Alert: Choosing Among Three Drafts
A transit agency has 25 words for a push notification about Sunday service. The writer produces three drafts: A.
590 words, about 3 min3Clinic Text Message: Collocation, Wordiness, and Register
A community clinic sends a 60-word text reminder to patients. Most patients read it on a phone; some are older adults, and many read English as a second language.
578 words, about 3 min4Ordering the Food Pantry Paragraph
A food pantry's volunteer writes a four-sentence paragraph for the newsletter, but submits the sentences in the wrong order: A. "Many working families in the neighborhood cannot visit on weekdays." C.
647 words, about 3 min5Newsletter Copyedit: Apostrophes, Commas, and a Semicolon
A school newsletter editor has four sentences to check before the issue goes out: 1. "the principals announcement, which was posted on monday, said that students lockers would be cleaned over spring break." 2.
632 words, about 3 min