Week 10 Quiz

Strunk's Rule 13, "Omit needless words", opens: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts." Which of these illustrative sentences is an acceptable paraphrase of that passage?

Select one.

• Strunk opens Rule 13 with a four-word verdict: "Vigorous writing is concise."
• Strong writing is brief, and a sentence should have no unneeded words (Strunk).
• Strunk argues that good prose keeps only the words that do work, comparing a padded sentence to a drawing with stray lines or a machine with spare parts.
• Strunk's style manual offers writers a long list of rules about many habits, from how to choose each word to how to order the sentences inside each paragraph of an essay.

A student writes this version of Strunk's Rule 13 passage and adds "(Strunk)" after it: "Strong writing is brief. A sentence should have no unneeded words, a paragraph no unneeded sentences, for the same reason that a picture should have no unneeded lines and a machine no unneeded parts." Which description fits it?

Select one.

• Patchwriting: it keeps Strunk's sentence skeleton with synonyms swapped in, so it is plagiarism even with the citation
• An acceptable paraphrase: eight single words were changed, the meaning stays the same, and the citation at the end credits Strunk
• A quotation: it keeps Strunk's meaning, so it counts as his words
• A summary: it reduces Rule 13 to its gist in the student's own words

A student writes one sentence in her own words that covers the whole of Beland and Murphy's journal article: "Beland and Murphy studied schools in four English cities that banned phones and found a small average gain in exam results, concentrated among the lowest-achieving students." Which of the three honest moves is that sentence?

Select one.

• A quotation, because it names the authors
• A paraphrase, because she wrote it entirely in her own words
• A response, because it gives her view of the study
• A summary, because it boils a whole source down to its gist

Which of these illustrative sentences about Beland and Murphy's study is a neutral summary rather than a response?

Select one.

• The study is the best evidence anyone has found, and every school should follow it.
• Beland and Murphy studied schools in four English cities that banned phones and found a small average gain in exam results, concentrated among the lowest-achieving students.
• Beland and Murphy prove that phones hurt every student in every school.
• I disagree with the study, because my own phone helps me take notes.

Complete the signal phrase so the verb matches what the source does: "Beland and Murphy ____ a small average gain in exam results, concentrated among the lowest-achieving students."

Select one.

• prove
• concede
• found
• deny

In an essay for a general audience, which of these sentences needs a citation even when the writer puts it entirely in her own words?

Select one.

• King delivered "I Have a Dream" in 1963.
• The gain was concentrated among the lowest-achieving students.
• Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
• In this essay I argue for a phone-free default in lecture sections.

Here is the running draft's integrated quotation: "As Beland and Murphy argue, 'the unstructured presence of phones has detrimental effects on certain students' (61), and the students they identify are the ones a college most needs to reach." Which part is the writer's own analysis?

Select one.

• "As Beland and Murphy argue,"
• "the unstructured presence of phones has detrimental effects on certain students"
• "(61)"
• "and the students they identify are the ones a college most needs to reach"

Which of these illustrative sentences puts two of the running draft's sources in conversation rather than in a list?

Select one.

• Amy reports that a majority of U.S. states now ban or regulate phones in schools, and Beland and Murphy's study suggests who such rules may help most: the lowest-achieving students.
• Amy writes about state laws. Beland and Murphy did a study. The Department for Education has guidance.
• Amy's article is a news report, and Beland and Murphy's article is a peer-reviewed study.
• Beland and Murphy studied schools in four English cities that banned phones, and Amy's article about state laws on phones in schools was published by a news outlet for general readers.

True or false: a quotation that a chatbot supplies with an author, a title, and a page number can go into your essay without checking the real text.

True or false.

• True
• False

Here is an acceptable paraphrase of Strunk's Rule 13 passage: "Strunk argues that good prose keeps only the words that do work, comparing a padded sentence to a drawing with stray lines or a machine with spare parts." Select every accurate statement about it.

Select every option that applies.

• It is one sentence instead of Strunk's two, built in the writer's own order.
• It credits Strunk with a signal phrase.
• It keeps Strunk's sentence skeleton and swaps in synonyms.
• It is a summary of the whole of The Elements of Style.