Writing and Language
Writing and Language tests your control of the writing process and of Standard English conventions. Items ask you to choose the most effective revision, improve organization and cohesion, combine sentences, correct grammar and punctuation, evaluate evidence and sources, and adjust style for audience and purpose. Many questions hinge on the difference between what is grammatically allowed and what is rhetorically best.
Core rules and concepts
- Modes: argument (claim, reasons, evidence, warrant, counterclaim, rebuttal), informative/explanatory (controlling idea, objective tone, logical organization), narrative (conflict, pacing, sensory detail, consistent point of view and tense).
- Thesis: specific, debatable, and manageable-not a fact and not a broad announcement.
- Paragraph development: topic sentence, evidence, analysis, and a link back to the claim. Evidence must be relevant, sufficient, and integrated, not dropped in.
- Cohesion: transitions by function (addition, contrast, concession, cause/effect, sequence); clear pronoun reference; parallel structure; consistent register.
- Sentence craft: combine with subordinate clauses, participial phrases, and appositives. Avoid fragments, comma splices, and run-ons.
- Conventions: subject–verb agreement across interrupting phrases; pronoun–antecedent agreement; tense consistency; misplaced and dangling modifiers; who/whom; lay/lie; fewer/less; between/among.
- Punctuation: comma with introductory elements and nonrestrictive clauses; semicolon between independent clauses; colon after a complete clause to introduce a list or explanation; apostrophes for possession, not plural; quotation marks with punctuation.
- Research: credible, current sources; paraphrase and quotation with citation; avoid plagiarism.
Worked example
“Walking into the auditorium, the podium stood empty and the lights were dim.”
The sentence opens with a participial phrase, so its implied subject must be the person walking. “The podium” cannot walk in, so the modifier dangles. Revised: “Walking into the auditorium, we saw that the podium stood empty and the lights were dim.” The revision supplies a subject that can perform the action and keeps the original meaning.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating “however” as a conjunction and creating a comma splice.
- Fixing grammar while changing the writer's meaning.
- Choosing passive voice when active is clearer, or the reverse, without a reason.
- Matching a verb to the nearest noun rather than the true subject.
- Leaving a pronoun with two possible antecedents.
- Selecting an answer that is correct in isolation but does not address the question's focus, such as organization rather than usage.