CLEP College Composition Modular cheat sheet

A comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma; repair it with a period, a semicolon, or a coordinating conjunction.

Use a semicolon between two independent clauses not joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

A colon must follow an independent clause and introduces a list, an explanation, or a quotation.

Restrictive clauses, appositives, and phrases are not set off by commas; nonrestrictive ones are set off by commas.

Prepositional phrases between a subject and its verb do not change subject-verb agreement: 'The box of tools is heavy.'

An introductory participial phrase must modify the subject of the main clause, or it dangles.

'Who' serves as a subject and 'whom' as the object of a verb or preposition.

'Its' is possessive; 'it's' means 'it is' or 'it has'; reflexive forms (myself, herself) cannot serve as subjects.

Items in a series and elements following correlative conjunctions (either/or, not only/but also) must be grammatically parallel.

Delete inflated phrases: 'due to the fact that' becomes 'because'; 'in the event that' becomes 'if'; 'at this point in time' becomes 'now.'

Use active voice when the actor is known and relevant; passive voice is justified when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or deliberately concealed.

Combine short sentences by subordination to signal time, cause, condition, or contrast between ideas.

Place modifiers next to the word they modify; a modifier separated from its target is misplaced, not merely awkward.

Place the newest and most important information at the end of a sentence, where readers notice it most.

Replace nominalizations with verbs: 'make a decision' becomes 'decide'; 'provide assistance' becomes 'help.'

Transition choice must match the logical relation: 'however' signals contrast, 'therefore' signals result, 'moreover' signals addition, 'for example' signals illustration.

Revise global features (thesis, organization, paragraph unity) before local features (grammar, punctuation, diction).

Maintain consistent verb tense and point of view unless a shift is deliberate and explicitly signaled.

Paraphrase changes both wording and sentence structure while retaining the idea; it still requires a citation.

MLA in-text format is (Author 45) - no comma and no 'p.' before a simple page number.

APA in-text format is (Author, 2020, p. 45), with commas separating the elements.

In MLA style, a quotation longer than four prose lines becomes an indented block quote without quotation marks, with the period placed before the citation.

Common knowledge - widely available facts such as major dates - requires no citation; specific or disputed facts do.

A signal phrase ('According to Nguyen...') marks the boundary between the source's voice and the writer's own.

Plagiarism includes uncredited paraphrase and borrowed sentence structure, not only word-for-word copying.

Assess source credibility by author credentials, publication venue, date, and the presence of evidence and citations.

Synthesis places sources in relation to one another around a claim rather than summarizing them one at a time.

Ethos appeals to the speaker's credibility and character; pathos to emotion and values; logos to logic and evidence.

The rhetorical situation comprises speaker, audience, purpose, message, context, and exigence.

Concession acknowledges an opposing point before rebuttal, which raises credibility rather than weakening the claim.

Ad hominem attacks the person; straw man misrepresents the opponent's position; false dilemma limits the options to two.

Slippery slope asserts an unproven chain of consequences; hasty generalization draws a broad conclusion from thin evidence.

Tone is produced by diction, syntax, and imagery rather than stated directly by the writer.

Anaphora repeats a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses; epistrophe repeats it at the end.

A rhetorical question is asked for effect; the speaker assumes rather than supplies the answer.

Qualifying a claim with hedges ('often,' 'in most cases') limits overgeneralization and makes the argument more defensible.