Writing (201): Conventions, Summary, and Composition
Domain 2: Writing (201)
The Writing subtest (201) tests your control of standard edited American English and your ability to write clear, organized prose under a prompt. It combines multiple-choice questions on grammar, usage, mechanics, and sentence structure with two constructed responses: a summary of a reading passage and a multi-paragraph composition.
Core rules
- Agreement: A verb agrees with its subject, not with a phrase between them. Each, either, neither, everyone are singular. Pronouns must have one clear antecedent.
- Sentence boundaries: A fragment lacks a subject or predicate; a comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma. Fix with a period, semicolon, or conjunction.
- Modifiers: Place a modifier next to the word it describes. Dangling modifiers usually begin with a participle (Walking to class, the rain...) and lack a logical subject.
- Punctuation: Use commas for introductory elements, items in a series, and nonessential clauses. Apostrophes mark possession (the students' work) or contraction (it's = it is); its is possessive.
- Summary: State the passage's main idea and key supporting points in your own words, in neutral third person, without examples or opinion, within the word limit.
- Composition: Open with a thesis, develop one idea per paragraph, use transitions, and support claims with specific evidence.
Worked example
Sentence: Each of the students in the advanced seminar have submitted their proposal.
Reasoning: The subject is Each, singular, so the verb must be has, not have. The pronoun their has no singular antecedent; in formal edited English, recast as Each ... has submitted a proposal or All of the students ... have submitted their proposals. The phrase of the students in the advanced seminar is a prepositional phrase and cannot control agreement.
Traps
Comma splices; its/it's and plural/possessive apostrophes; subject-verb agreement across interrupting phrases; ambiguous this or they; tense shifts; wordiness; and in summaries, copying source sentences, adding opinion, or omitting the main idea.