LCA English and Communication cheat sheet

Main idea = the claim the whole passage supports; a detail supports it but cannot replace it, so test each option by asking whether the rest of the passage would still make sense without it.

Tone words split into positive (laudatory, sanguine), neutral (measured, clinical), and negative (caustic, elegiac); match the option's register to the author's word choices, not to the topic.

Scope words (all, most, some, only, never) decide answer validity: an option with a broader quantifier than the passage supports is wrong even if the topic matches.

Inference answers must be necessarily true from the text; if an option requires one extra assumption the passage never states, it is out of scope.

Passage structure markers: contrast (however, yet, although) usually signals the author's real position; concession clauses (granted, while true) precede the main claim.

Pronoun and referent questions: trace the nearest preceding noun that agrees in number and fits the verb's logic; do not assume the sentence's grammatical subject is the referent.

Vocabulary-in-context: substitute each option into the sentence and check that the sentence's surrounding logic (cause, contrast, example) still holds.

Paired-passage questions: identify the point of agreement first, then the specific disagreement; a correct answer names both texts' relation, not just one text's view.

Subject-verb agreement is decided by the head noun, not the nearest noun: 'The list of items is long'; phrases between subject and verb do not change number.

Indefinite pronouns are singular: each, either, neither, everyone, nobody, one take singular verbs and singular pronouns (his/her, not their, in formal registers).

Comma splice = two independent clauses joined by only a comma; fix with a period, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

Restrictive clauses take 'that' with no commas; nonrestrictive clauses take 'which' with commas; the commas signal the information is removable.

Dangling modifier test: the introductory participial phrase must describe the grammatical subject of the main clause; otherwise rewrite the subject.

Parallelism: items in a series, comparisons, and correlative pairs (not only...but also, either...or) must share the same grammatical form.

Pronoun case: after prepositions and as subjects of gerunds use object/possessive forms ('between you and me', 'his running'), and 'who' for subjects, 'whom' for objects.

Apostrophes mark possession or contraction, never plurals; 'its' is possessive, 'it's' means 'it is'; singular possessive adds 's even after s (James's).

Comparatives need a logical comparison: 'than that of' or 'than those of' when comparing one attribute across two things, to avoid comparing a thing to a category.

Thesis statement rule: one sentence, arguable, specific, and placed where the reader can find it (usually the end of the introduction); it must preview the essay's structure.

Paragraph unity: every sentence serves the topic sentence; a sentence that introduces a new claim belongs in a new paragraph.

Evidence sandwich: claim, then source or example, then analysis explaining how the evidence supports the claim; unanalyzed quotation is summary, not argument.

Transitions encode logical relations (addition, contrast, cause, sequence, concession); using 'however' for addition or 'therefore' for contrast misrepresents the logic.

Active voice is default for clarity; passive is correct when the actor is unknown, irrelevant, or when the object deserves emphasis.

Concision: delete expletive openers ('There are', 'It is important that') and nominalizations ('make a decision' becomes 'decide') to raise information density.

Audience calibration: formal academic register avoids contractions, slang, and second person; technical reports allow field jargon but require defined terms at first use.

Revision order: content and organization first, then paragraph flow, then sentence style, then proofreading; editing prose before fixing structure wastes effort.

Active listening cycle: receive, interpret, evaluate, respond; paraphrasing the speaker's point before replying confirms interpretation and exposes mishearing.

Signposting phrases ('first', 'to summarize', 'on the other hand') mark lecture structure; notes should record these markers because they predict where key claims appear.

Note-taking should capture claims and evidence, not verbatim wording; abbreviations and symbols preserve more content per minute than full sentences.

Nonverbal channels (eye contact, posture, nodding) regulate turn-taking; in many professional contexts they carry more weight than the literal words.

Clarifying questions split into closed (yes/no confirmation) and open (elaboration); use closed questions to verify facts and open questions to expand reasoning.

Turn-taking norms: interruptions that finish another's sentence are cooperative in high-solidarity groups but read as dominance in formal settings.

Presentation structure: tell them what you will say, say it with evidence, then restate; signposting at each transition reduces audience cognitive load.

Barriers to listening include environmental noise, semantic jargon, emotional filtering, and rehearsal (planning a reply while the speaker is still talking).

Connotation differs from denotation: 'thrifty' (positive), 'frugal' (neutral), 'stingy' (negative) share a core meaning but differ in evaluative charge.

Collocation is convention, not logic: 'make a decision', 'do research', 'conduct a study', 'commit a crime'; wrong collocations read as non-native even when grammar is correct.

Register levels: formal (commence, obtain), neutral (start, get), informal (kick off, grab); matching register to audience is a correctness issue in professional writing.

Affix clues: prefixes (pre-, anti-, mis-, sub-) and suffixes (-tion, -ity, -ous, -ify) indicate meaning and part of speech, useful for unknown words in context.

False friends and confusables: affect (verb)/effect (noun), imply (speaker)/infer (listener), comprise (whole)/compose (parts), fewer (count)/less (mass).

Idioms are fixed: changing a preposition or article ('depend of', 'in the contrary') breaks the phrase even if the meaning is guessable.

Word families: knowing the noun, verb, adjective, and adverb forms (analyze, analysis, analytical, analytically) allows paraphrase without changing meaning.

Academic hedging: modal and qualifying verbs (suggest, indicate, tend to) signal appropriate caution; unhedged absolutes overstate evidence.

Argument anatomy: claim, evidence, warrant (the assumption linking evidence to claim), and qualifier; attacking a warrant is usually stronger than disputing the evidence.

Validity vs soundness: a valid argument's conclusion follows from its premises; a sound argument is valid and has true premises.

Common fallacies: ad hominem (attacks the person), straw man (misstates the opponent), false dilemma (only two options), slippery slope (unproven chain), circular reasoning (assumes the conclusion).

Correlation is not causation; alternative explanations include reverse causation, common cause, and coincidence, each of which must be ruled out before causal claims.

Necessary vs sufficient conditions: 'only if' marks a necessary condition; 'if' marks a sufficient one; confusing them inverts the argument's logic.

Inductive strength depends on sample size, representativeness, and recency; a generalization from a small or biased sample is weak regardless of confidence.

Counterargument quality: the strongest rebuttal engages the best version of the opposing view (steel-manning) and concedes what is true before refuting.

Evidence hierarchy in reasoning: primary data and peer-reviewed findings outweigh anecdote, testimony, and appeals to popularity or authority alone.

Email structure: subject line states purpose and action; opening states the request or context; body gives necessary detail; closing names the next step and deadline.

Citation styles: APA (author-date, social sciences), MLA (author-page, humanities), Chicago (notes-bibliography or author-date), IEEE (numbered, engineering); in-text form must match the reference list.

Plagiarism includes unattributed paraphrase and self-plagiarism; quoting requires quotation marks plus a citation, and paraphrasing requires a citation too.

Report conventions: executive summary states findings and recommendations, methodology enables replication, results are reported before interpretation, discussion addresses limitations.

Meeting and minutes norms: agenda circulated in advance, decisions and action items recorded with owners and due dates, not a transcript of discussion.

Professional tone: direct, courteous, and specific; avoid blame language ('you failed to') in favor of neutral description plus requested remedy.

Abstract components: purpose, method, key results, conclusion; abstracts contain no citations and no information absent from the paper.

Cross-cultural professional writing favors explicit context, plain wording, and defined acronyms; indirectness varies by culture and should be read as style, not evasion.