Writing and Composition
What the domain tests
Composition questions assess paragraph unity, coherence, organisation, development, and revision. You must recognise topic sentences, supporting detail, transitions, and appropriate tone, and decide how to combine, split, reorder, or delete sentences to improve a draft.
Traps to watch
- Off-topic sentences. A sentence can be well written yet unrelated to the paragraph's controlling idea.
- Weak transitions. Abrupt shifts between ideas need a linking word or phrase.
- Underdevelopment. A claim with no evidence or example needs support, not deletion.
- Redundancy. Repeating the same idea in different words weakens a draft.
- Register slips. Contractions and slang may be wrong in formal academic prose.
- Misplaced emphasis. The most important idea usually belongs in the topic sentence or conclusion.
Rule of thumb
For each paragraph, state its main point in one sentence. Any sentence that does not support that point is a candidate for deletion or relocation. When asked to improve a draft, prefer the smallest change that fixes the problem.
Worked example
A paragraph argues that urban trees lower summer temperatures, then adds a sentence about the writer's favourite park. The personal sentence breaks unity and should be removed or replaced with temperature data.