Language and Research Skills for Writing
What the domain tests
Language and Research Skills for Writing covers standard English conventions and the research moves that make writing trustworthy. Expect items on sentence boundaries, agreement, pronoun reference, modifiers, punctuation, capitalization, and word choice, plus questions on evaluating sources, paraphrasing, quoting, and avoiding plagiarism.
Core rules
- A complete sentence needs a subject and a finite verb and cannot be joined to another complete sentence by only a comma.
- Make subjects and verbs agree across interrupting phrases; make pronouns agree with antecedents in number and person.
- Place modifiers next to the word they modify.
- Use commas for nonessential information, semicolons between related independent clauses, and apostrophes for possession or contraction.
- In research, distinguish primary from secondary sources and scholarly from popular; check author, date, publisher, evidence, and bias.
- Quote exact language with quotation marks and a citation; paraphrase by changing structure and wording, not just swapping synonyms.
Worked example
Sentence: 'The team of researchers, after reviewing the data, were unsure about the conclusion.' The subject is 'team,' singular; the intervening phrase 'of researchers' does not change agreement. Correct: 'was unsure.' A research item might ask whether a blog post is adequate support for a factual claim; the better answer notes that a blog may be useful for leads but should be verified against a credible source with named authorship and evidence.
Traps
- Treating 'data' as automatically singular or plural without checking the sentence's convention.
- Using a comma splice and calling it a stylistic choice.
- Citing a source only in the bibliography while quoting without quotation marks.
- Accepting a source because it looks professional, without checking date or author expertise.