DSST Principles of Advanced English Composition cheat sheet

A sentence needs a subject and a finite verb; a fragment lacks one or the other, and a run-on joins two independent clauses with no punctuation or with only a comma (comma splice).

Four sentence structures by clause count: simple = 1 independent clause; compound = 2+ independent clauses; complex = 1 independent + 1+ dependent; compound-complex = 2+ independent + 1+ dependent.

Coordination joins equal elements with FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so); subordination ranks ideas with markers such as although, because, when, which, and that.

A relative clause beginning with 'that' is restrictive and takes no commas; one beginning with 'which' after a comma is nonrestrictive and can be removed without changing the core claim.

Parallelism rule: items in a series, pairs joined by correlatives (either/or, not only/but also), and elements compared with 'than' must share grammatical form.

A modifier must sit next to the word it describes; a dangling modifier has no logical noun to attach to (e.g., 'Walking to class, the rain began').

Pronoun reference must be unambiguous and agree in number with its antecedent; singular indefinite antecedents (each, everyone, neither) take singular verbs and pronouns.

Verb tense should stay consistent within a passage; shift tense only to signal a real change in time, and use past perfect for an event completed before another past event.

Conciseness: replace wordy expletives ('there are,' 'it is') and redundant pairs ('advance planning,' 'each and every') with a single direct subject and verb.

A claim is the debatable assertion an argument defends; a thesis adds a because-clause reason, making the argument's logic visible to the reader.

Evidence types differ in force: statistics show scale, examples show plausibility, expert testimony lends authority, and anecdotes illustrate but rarely prove.

Warrant (Toulmin) is the unstated assumption linking evidence to claim; attacking a warrant is often stronger than disputing the data.

A qualifier limits a claim's scope (some, most, in general); an unqualified absolute (all, never, always) is easier for an opponent to refute with one counterexample.

A rebuttal names the strongest opposing view fairly, then shows why it fails or is outweighed; a straw man misstates the opposition and is a fallacy, not a rebuttal.

Fallacies of relevance: ad hominem (attacks the person), appeal to authority (unqualified expert), appeal to popularity (bandwagon), and appeal to emotion replace reasons with distractions.

Fallacies of insufficient evidence: hasty generalization (small sample), false dilemma (only two options), post hoc (sequence treated as cause), and circular reasoning (conclusion restated as premise).

Induction reasons from specific cases to a probable generalization; deduction applies a general premise to a case, so a valid deduction is only as sound as its premises.

Concession signals credibility: 'Although X is true, Y nevertheless follows' acknowledges the opposing point while keeping the writer's claim as the main clause.

Primary sources are original artifacts or data (the study, the speech, the letter); secondary sources analyze or interpret primary material, and the exam asks you to use secondary sources responsibly.

A source must be both relevant (bears on the specific claim) and credible (author expertise, publisher, date, methodology); recency matters most in fast-changing fields.

Paraphrase restates a source's idea in your own sentence structure and words; patchwriting (swapping a few synonyms while keeping the original syntax) still counts as plagiarism.

A direct quotation must be word-for-word, enclosed in quotation marks, and followed by a citation; changes inside a quote use brackets for insertions and ellipsis for omissions.

Common knowledge (widely known facts available in many sources) needs no citation; a specific statistic, a distinctive interpretation, or another's wording always does.

Summary compresses a source's whole argument; paraphrase restates one passage; quotation preserves exact wording - choose quotation when the phrasing itself is evidence.

Integrating a source requires a signal phrase naming the author and a follow-up sentence explaining how the evidence supports your claim; a dropped-in quote without commentary is ineffective.

MLA in-text citation gives author and page (Smith 42) with no comma; APA gives author, year, and page for quotes (Smith, 2020, p. 42).

An annotated bibliography entry summarizes the source, evaluates its credibility and bias, and states how it will be used in the writer's argument.