Elements of Effective Writing
The Elements of Effective Writing domain tests sentence- and paragraph-level control: clarity, concision, coherence, tone, and correctness. Questions ask you to choose the best revision, identify the error, or predict how a change shifts emphasis.
Sentence-level control
- Prefer verbs to nominalizations: "make a decision" → "decide"; "conduct an analysis" → "analyze".
- Remove expletives ("there is," "it is") when a real subject exists.
- Passive voice is a tool, not an error: use it when the actor is unknown, unimportant, or better placed at the end for emphasis.
- Keep parallelism across series and correlative conjunctions: "hiring staff, training them, and evaluating results," not "evaluation of results."
- Place modifiers next to what they modify: "Walking to class, Maya saw the flyer," not "Walking to class, the flyer was seen by Maya."
- Match register to audience and keep point of view consistent; avoid slang, jargon, and inflated phrasing.
Cohesion and paragraph design
Use the given-new contract: begin sentences with familiar information and end with new emphasis. Transitions must signal a logical relationship, not decorate-"however" marks contrast, "therefore" marks causation. A paragraph has one controlling idea announced in a topic sentence; every sentence supports or develops it. Coordination (and, but, or) ranks ideas equally; subordination (because, although, which) ranks one idea as dependent. Choose according to importance.
Worked example
Original: "There is a need for the committee to make a decision regarding the proposal in the near future." Revision: "The committee must decide on the proposal soon." Reasoning: "There is a need for" is an expletive frame; "make a decision regarding" buries the action in nouns and prepositional padding. "Must decide" restores a finite verb and specifies obligation, while "soon" replaces "in the near future." The revision is shorter, more direct, and preserves meaning.
Traps that cost marks
- Overcorrecting into fragments: "The committee deciding soon" is not a sentence.
- Using a semicolon where a colon belongs: a colon introduces an explanation or list; a semicolon joins independent clauses.
- Treating "which" and "that" as interchangeable: "that" introduces restrictive information; "which" introduces nonrestrictive information usually set off by commas.
- Assuming formal prose must be wordy; exam rubrics reward concision.
- Missing agreement across intervening phrases: "The list of items is," not "are."