Written Expression
What this section tests
Written Expression checks whether you can produce clear, correct, professional prose - the skill behind every report, affidavit, and memo you will write. Questions typically ask you to choose the best version of a sentence, fix an error, or pick the sentence that best begins or follows a paragraph.
Concepts to master
- Sentence completeness. Fragments (no main verb) and run-ons/comma splices (two independent clauses joined by only a comma).
- Subject–verb agreement, especially when a phrase separates the two: The officer, along with two witnesses, was interviewed. "Along with," "as well as," and "together with" do not create a compound subject.
- Pronoun reference and case. Every it, they, he needs one unmistakable antecedent. Use between you and me, not between you and I.
- Modifier placement. A descriptive phrase must sit next to what it describes: Walking to the cruiser, she noticed the open gate - not Walking to the cruiser, the gate was open.
- Parallelism, tense consistency, punctuation of lists, apostrophes, and word choice (affect/effect, their/there, then/than).
- Paragraph logic. Opening sentences set the topic; transitions signal addition, contrast, cause, or sequence.
Traps
Long sentences bury the verb far from its subject. Formal-sounding options are often fragments. Some options are grammatically fine but wordy or ambiguous - pick the clearest, not the fanciest. In paragraph questions, a sentence that is true but jumps topics is wrong.
Rule of thumb
Strip the sentence down. Cross out every phrase between subject and verb, read the bare sentence aloud, then check each option against that skeleton.
Worked example
"Neither the sergeant nor the officers (was/were) aware of the call." With neither…nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject: officers → were.