Week 3 — Quiz (auto-graded) · The Paragraph

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective tested: Objective 3 — the paragraph: topic sentences, unity, coherence, and development.
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 3. AI is not permitted on quizzes.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-03-qti.xml (generated by a validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). The Canvas placement block is at the bottom of this file. No free-response items — all auto-gradable (MC / multiple-answer / matching / true-false). All example paragraphs and sentences are the instructor's own illustrations, attributed to no one — there is nothing to mis-quote.

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 3 misconceptions named in the lecture outline.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). Which of the following is a real topic sentence — a claim a paragraph could develop — rather than a title or a bare fact?
- A. My First Apartment
- B. Living alone for the first time taught me how much I rely on a routine ✅
- C. I moved into the apartment in August
- D. Apartments
Feedback: A topic sentence makes a claim the paragraph can prove. (B) does that; "My First Apartment" and "Apartments" are titles/subjects, and "I moved in in August" is a bare fact that sets up nothing to develop.

Q2 (MC). A paragraph's topic sentence is "Riding the bus to campus saves me real money." Which sentence breaks unity?
- A. A monthly bus pass costs less than gas and parking combined.
- B. I no longer pay for a campus parking permit.
- C. The bus is also where I run into my friend Dev most mornings. ✅
- D. Skipping parking tickets alone has saved me a small fortune.
Feedback: Unity means every sentence serves the topic sentence — here, that the bus saves money. (C) is true but wanders to a different point (who you see on the bus). The fix is revision: cut it or move it where it belongs.

Q3 (MC). In a paragraph, coherence most nearly means —
- A. the sentences flow and connect logically, with clear order, transitions, and old-to-new information ✅
- B. the paragraph is exactly five sentences long
- C. every word is spelled correctly
- D. the paragraph cites at least one source
Feedback: Coherence is flow — logical order, transitions that name real relationships, and old-to-new (given/new) progression. (B) is the five-sentence myth; (C) is editing; (D) is documentation.

Q4 (MC). A paragraph is well-developed when —
- A. it lists as many facts as possible
- B. it repeats the main claim in several different ways
- C. it backs the point with evidence AND explains what that evidence shows ✅
- D. it is at least one full page long
Feedback: Development = evidence + explanation. Facts don't argue for you — you have to explain what each one shows. Listing facts (A), restating the claim (B), or sheer length (D) is not development.

Q5 (MC). A writer has just made a point and now wants to introduce a contrasting idea in the next sentence. Which transition fits best?
- A. for example
- B. as a result
- C. however ✅
- D. in addition
Feedback: A transition names the relationship between ideas. "However" signals contrast; "for example" introduces an illustration, "as a result" signals cause/effect, and "in addition" signals more of the same.

Q6 (Matching). Match each part of a paragraph to its job.
| Part | Correct job |
|---|---|
| Topic sentence | States the paragraph's one controlling idea (the claim) |
| Evidence / illustration | Backs the claim with an example, detail, or fact |
| Explanation | Says, in the writer's own words, what the evidence shows |
| Transition | Signals the relationship between ideas so the paragraph flows |
Feedback: These four jobs map onto the P-I-E / MEAL build. Watch the classic mix-up: evidence shows something; the explanation says what it means — the step writers most often skip.

Q7 (True / False). "A good paragraph must be exactly five sentences long."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. A paragraph runs as long as its one idea needs — sometimes three sentences, sometimes twelve. A very short paragraph usually signals it is under-developed, but there is no required sentence count.

Q8 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which statements about paragraph unity are correct?
- A. Every sentence in the paragraph should serve the topic sentence ✅
- B. A paragraph has unity as long as all its sentences are roughly on the same general subject
- C. A sentence that wanders to a different point should be cut or moved ✅
- D. Fixing a unity problem is a revision move (re-seeing what belongs), not editing ✅
- E. Unity mainly means correcting grammar and punctuation
Feedback: Unity is strict: every sentence serves this paragraph's controlling idea (A), so a wanderer is cut or relocated (C), and that is revision (D). "Same general subject" is too loose (B) — a sentence can be on-subject and still break unity. Unity is not about grammar (E).

Q9 (MC). The main job of a topic sentence is to —
- A. give the paragraph a creative title
- B. state the one controlling idea that every other sentence in the paragraph will support ✅
- C. list the sources the paragraph will cite
- D. announce how many sentences the paragraph will have
Feedback: The topic sentence states the controlling idea — the single point the rest of the paragraph serves. It is not a title (A), a source list (C), or a length rule (D).

Q10 (MC). A student writes: "My internship built my confidence. I attended meetings. I sent emails. I shadowed a manager." The biggest problem is that the paragraph —
- A. has no topic sentence
- B. lists activities but never explains how any of them built confidence (it is under-developed) ✅
- C. is missing a works-cited entry
- D. uses too many transitions
Feedback: The paragraph has a topic sentence, but it lists facts and stops — it never explains how attending meetings or sending emails built confidence. That missing explanation is the development gap; listing is not developing.

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q9, Q10, and the T/F Q7) has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q8) keys A, C, D (and requires B and E left unselected); the matching item (Q6) pairs four paragraph parts to four distinct jobs one-to-one. No quotations, sources, or citations appear in this quiz — every example paragraph and sentence is the instructor's own illustration, attributed to no one — so there is nothing to mis-quote or misattribute, and the paragraph craft modeled (topic sentence, unity test, evidence-plus-explanation, transition relationships) matches the Week-3 lecture and the Purdue/Excelsior readings. No computation in this quiz. No free-response items. Citation-integrity + correct-conventions gate: PASS.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=ENGL1A · week=3 · objective=3 · topic=the-paragraph and deposited in Item Bank: Week 3 — The Paragraph. The midterm (Week 8) and the per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 topic-sentence-id, q2 unity-breaker, q3 coherence-defined, q4 development-defined, q5 transition-contrast, q6 parts-to-jobs-match, q7 five-sentence-myth, q8 unity-multi, q9 topic-sentence-job, q10 listing-vs-developing.)

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Quizzes::Quiz
title           = "Week 3 Quiz — The Paragraph"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
published       = true
shuffle_answers = true
ai_permitted    = false    # AI is not permitted on quizzes
provenance      = "~ Prof. Lindgren's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"