Week 13 Quiz

A student is revising the running draft, an illustrative essay arguing for phone-free lecture sections by default. Which of these changes belongs to global revision rather than local editing?

Select one.

• Swapping "due to the fact that" for "because" in the second paragraph
• Rewriting the thesis so it states a claim the whole essay can prove
• Adding a comma after an introductory element in the opening sentence
• Cutting the word "very" from "very short" in the conclusion

An illustrative storm report is revised from five short sentences into three. One new sentence reads: "The river rose over its banks, and the main road closed." How were those two ideas combined?

Select one.

• By subordination, making the road closing depend on the river rising
• By cutting deadwood, removing an inflated phrase
• By coordination, joining two equal ideas with "and" and a comma
• By the passive voice, moving the doer to the end

A writer makes a reverse outline of a finished draft. What does a reverse outline note beside each paragraph?

Select one.

• What the paragraph says, and what job it does for the argument
• The plan the writer made for that paragraph before any drafting began
• Every comma, spelling, and grammar error in the paragraph
• A shorter version of the paragraph, with the deadwood cut

The running draft's working thesis argues for a phone-free default because the benefit falls hardest on the students who struggle most and the cost to everyone else is small. Its reverse outline shows one body paragraph arguing the benefit, and the cost mentioned only in passing inside other paragraphs. Which revision fits what the reverse outline found?

Select one.

• Cut every "very" and "really" from the third paragraph
• Combine the short sentences in the introduction
• Rewrite the counterargument paragraph in the passive voice
• Give the cost its own body paragraph before the counterargument

An illustrative committee sentence reads: "The committee made a decision to hold a vote on the proposal." Which kind of deadwood is "made a decision"?

Select one.

• An empty intensifier
• A redundancy
• A buried verb
• A statement in the passive voice

Which statement describes concision as this course defines it?

Select one.

• Every word earns its place, which is not always the shortest wording
• A good sentence uses the fewest words possible, whatever meaning is lost
• Longer and more formal words make a sentence stronger
• Every paragraph must lose a quarter of its words before it is done

Model sentence: "The claim is clear, but the evidence is thin." A writer conceding a weak point wants the reader to remember the strength. Which version puts the strength in the main clause and at the end?

Select one.

• "The claim is clear, but the evidence is thin."
• "The claim is clear; the evidence, however, is thin."
• "While the claim is clear, the evidence is thin."
• "Although the evidence is thin, the claim is clear."

True or false: The passive voice is a grammar error, so a careful writer always rewrites it in the active voice.

True or false.

• True
• False

Which of these are good reasons to choose the passive voice for a sentence? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• The doer of the action is unknown
• The passive makes the sentence sound more formal
• The doer is beside the point for this reader, as in "The samples were weighed twice."
• The writer deliberately keeps the doer in the background
• The passive makes the sentence longer and more impressive

A student asks a chatbot to "tighten" the running draft's revised paragraph, which argues for a phone-free default with an exception. It returns: "Phone bans raise grades for struggling students, so colleges should ban phones in lectures." Why should the student reject this version?

Select one.

• It cut words, and concision never allows a paragraph to shrink
• It changed the claim, turning a default with an exception into a ban
• It uses the active voice, which an argument should avoid
• It removed deadwood such as inflated phrases and empty intensifiers