Final Practice Exam

An illustrative paragraph reads: "Many reports run long. Orwell advises, 'Never use a long word where a short one will do.' The next section turns to formatting." Orwell's essay is a web text with no page numbers. Measured against the four-part integration move, what does the quotation lack?

Select one.

• the signal phrase and the in-text citation
• the in-text citation and the writer's analysis
• nothing, because naming the author completes the move
• only the writer's analysis of what the advice means

Which version of the illustrative sentence "The box of old photographs sit in the hall closet." is correct, and why?

Select one.

• "The box of old photographs sit in the hall closet," because photographs is plural
• "The box of old photographs sits in the hall closet," because the real subject is box
• "The box of old photographs sit in the hall closet," because the box holds many photographs
• "The box of old photograph sits in the hall closet," because the noun must match the verb

A student sets the diagnostic essay written at the start of the course beside a later research-based argument. The diagnostic's opening ends, "This essay will look at the topic from different angles." The argument's introduction ends on an arguable, specific thesis. Which sentence uses the diagnostic as a baseline?

Select one.

• I have improved enormously as a writer since the day I wrote that diagnostic at the very start of the course, and it shows.
• My diagnostic ended on "This essay will look at the topic from different angles," and my argument now ends on a claim.
• I left the diagnostic out of my portfolio because it was the weakest thing I wrote.
• The course spent a full week on thesis statements and the impostors that pose as them.

In a rhetorical analysis, a few exact words from the text followed by an explanation of their effect usually make a stronger paragraph than a long block of quotation.

True or false.

• True
• False

In this course, a story-based essay is excused from the usual structure: its paragraphs may wander from job to job, and it may stop without landing any point.

True or false.

• True
• False

A peer reviewer is checking whether an illustrative paragraph about a family recipe holds together. Which features belong to coherence as this course defines it? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• Each sentence starts from something the reader already knows and ends on something new
• Every sentence begins with a transition word
• Transitions such as "because" or "however" that name a real link between ideas
• Sentences arranged in a logical order
• A quotation from an expert in each sentence

An illustrative essay arguing for later library hours is written for the town's library board, whose members already know the building and its budget well. What does that audience most directly shape in the introduction?

Select one.

• Which position the essay should end up taking on the issue
• How much background the introduction has to supply
• How many words the thesis is allowed to have
• Which transitions the body paragraphs may use

A paragraph runs as long as its one idea needs, so a well-developed paragraph may hold fewer or more sentences than a classmate's paragraph does.

True or false.

• True
• False

An illustrative reverse outline reads: paragraph 3 argues that later hours help commuters; paragraph 4 answers the worry about safety; paragraph 5 argues once more that later hours help commuters, using a different example. What does this outline reveal?

Select one.

• Nothing, because each paragraph has a job and the order works
• A gap, because no paragraph states the thesis
• An editing problem with sentence punctuation
• A repeat, because one job is done in two paragraphs

A writer is planning the opening paragraph of an academic essay with this course's classroom model. Which elements should that paragraph carry? Select every one that belongs.

Select every option that applies.

• The answer to the strongest objection
• An opening detail or scene that draws the reader in
• A summary of what all the body points add up to
• The background a reader needs to follow the issue
• The sentence that states the essay's main claim

A writer has two sources on school phone rules: guidance from England's Department for Education and a study by Beland and Murphy. Which illustrative sentence makes the sources talk to each other instead of standing side by side?

Select one.

• The Department for Education wrote guidance. Beland and Murphy ran a study. Carr wrote a book.
• The guidance page is a government document, and Beland and Murphy's article is a scholarly study.
• Beland and Murphy studied schools in four English cities that banned phones, and the Department for Education's guidance page was published on GOV.UK for schools in England.
• England's guidance shows schools how they can prohibit phone use through the school day, and Beland and Murphy's study suggests who such a rule may help most.

A student closing a reflective cover letter wants one sentence that shows transfer: a skill she can name, headed for a new place. Which sentence does that?

Select one.

• I will read laterally to check every website before I cite it in my history paper.
• Everything from this course will be useful in my classes from now on.
• Strong writers are needed in nearly every career, so I am really glad I took this course this year.
• I feel far more confident about writing than I did before.

Illustrative paragraph: "A campus job can teach time management better than any planner. A set shift forces a student to plan study hours around it. The library desk job also comes with a free parking pass. Many students who work a set shift learn to block out reading time in advance." Which sentence breaks the paragraph's unity?

Select one.

• A set shift forces a student to plan study hours around it.
• Many students who work a set shift learn to block out reading time in advance.
• The library desk job also comes with a free parking pass.
• A campus job can teach time management better than any planner.

Just before sending a cover letter, a writer reads it one line at a time and notices "there" typed where "their" belongs. In this course's model of the writing process, what is that pass?

Select one.

• Revision, because a word in the letter changed
• Drafting, because the letter is still being written
• Reflection, because the writer is rereading the work
• Proofreading, the last surface check inside editing

An illustrative toast at a neighborhood block party says, "We came here as strangers, and we leave as neighbors." Which device does that line use?

Select one.

• Allusion, because it points to a famous text the audience knows
• Anaphora, because it repeats the same opening words
• Metaphor, because it describes one thing as another
• Antithesis, because it balances two opposed ideas side by side

Illustrative scenario: a resident writes a letter addressed to the city transit board, asking the board to add a bus stop near a health clinic. Reading the letter through the five questions, who is its audience?

Select one.

• Riders who wait at the stop nearest the clinic
• The resident who wrote the letter
• Patients who visit the clinic each week
• The transit board that decides where stops go

A draft's introduction ends with the illustrative sentence "Should the dining hall stay open later?" in the place where its thesis belongs. What kind of impostor is it?

Select one.

• An announcement
• A question
• A statement of fact
• A topic with no verb

A student's essay argues that first-year writing courses should teach lateral reading. Which illustrative opening sentence makes its paragraph part of an argument rather than a report?

Select one.

• Lateral reading belongs in the first term, because new students trust the pages they most need to check.
• Wineburg and McGrew studied how professional fact checkers, historians, and students judged unfamiliar websites.
• Lateral reading means leaving a site to see what independent sources say about it.
• The library's website lists several databases that first-year students can search.

An illustrative sentence links two complete statements, one about an outline and one about a draft, with the coordinating conjunction "and". Which version is punctuated correctly?

Select one.

• The outline is finished and, the draft is underway.
• The outline, is finished and the draft is underway.
• The outline is finished, and the draft is underway.
• The outline is finished and the draft, is underway.

A student writes four sentences for an end-of-course reflection. Which sentence is both specific and evidence-based, passing the two-part test for reflection?

Select one.

• My writing improved so much this term, and I am really proud of all the effort I put into every essay.
• I learned to use concrete detail instead of simply naming my feelings.
• This course changed the way I think about writing forever.
• In my narrative's second paragraph, I swapped "I was nervous" for my hands shaking on the bus.

Which of these are valid repairs of the comma splice in "The lab closed early, the samples stayed in the fridge"? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• The lab closed early, the samples, stayed in the fridge.
• The lab closed early; the samples stayed in the fridge.
• The lab closed early the samples stayed in the fridge.
• The lab closed early, and the samples stayed in the fridge.
• The lab closed early — the samples stayed in the fridge.

Illustrative scenario: a guest says that a toast at a retirement party worked mainly because every line fit that room, that evening, and that occasion. Which of the four appeals is the guest describing?

Select one.

• Pathos
• Ethos
• Kairos
• Logos

An illustrative essay arguing for later library hours needs its last sentence. Which option synthesizes what the points add up to, instead of restating the thesis?

Select one.

• In conclusion, the library should stay open later, as this essay has argued.
• This essay has looked at library hours from many different sides.
• Later hours would make the library usable for working residents at a cost the town can carry.
• Libraries have always mattered to the towns that build them.

A student's narrative essay first covered a whole summer. In the next draft she cut the background paragraphs, opened on the afternoon that changed things, and replaced named feelings with concrete detail. How should her reflection name this change?

Select one.

• As editing, because the sentences were polished until they read smoothly
• As proofreading, because the last pass caught the remaining typos
• As revision, because each change rethought the essay's focus
• As local editing, because the work happened inside one essay

Each of these word groups ends with a period. Which one is a fragment rather than a complete sentence?

Select one.

• Students lined up.
• The shuttle leaves at noon.
• The parking office posted the new permit prices on its website and emailed every commuter and staff member about the change.
• When the committee finally released the revised parking plan after weeks of debate among commuters and staff.

Illustrative scenario: a firefighter opens a talk on smoke alarms by mentioning the many house fires the firefighter has answered over a long career. Which appeal does that opening lean on most?

Select one.

• Logos, because the talk goes on to explain how alarms work
• Ethos, because long experience earns the audience's trust
• Pathos, because house fires are frightening to think about
• Kairos, because the talk is held at a convenient hour

Before submitting a portfolio, a student looks over everything written during the term. Which approach turns that collection into a curated portfolio?

Select one.

• Submit every single piece in the order it was written, so the reader can see the whole term at once
• Pick the pieces with the highest grades and include no explanation
• Pick the longest pieces, since length is the clearest proof of effort
• Pick pieces that each show a different skill, give a reason for each, and leave out repeats

A writer sorts four real sources on school phone rules: a news report by Jeff Amy for PBS News, a peer-reviewed study by Beland and Murphy, Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows, and a guidance page from England's Department for Education. Which two are secondary sources, writing about something rather than the thing itself? Select both.

Select every option that applies.

• Carr's book, The Shallows
• The Department for Education's guidance page
• Amy's news report for PBS News
• Beland and Murphy's peer-reviewed study

Eisenhower's Farewell Address includes this sentence: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Which statement describes it?

Select one.

• It is a run-on, because a sentence that long must hold more than one clause
• It is a comma splice, because its commas join independent clauses
• It is a correct sentence, built on one independent clause
• It is a fragment, because "whether sought or unsought" has no verb of its own

A writer's list holds entries for Strunk, Orwell, Douglass, and Lincoln, and her essay cites them in exactly that order. Which heading and order follow MLA style?

Select one.

• Works Cited, with the entries in the order Strunk, Orwell, Douglass, Lincoln
• References, with the entries in the order Douglass, Lincoln, Orwell, Strunk
• Works Cited, with the entries in the order Douglass, Lincoln, Orwell, Strunk
• Works Cited, with the entries in the order Douglass, Lincoln, Strunk, Orwell

A body paragraph says, in a sentence the writer built from scratch, that England's official guidance shows schools how they can prohibit phone use through the school day. Because none of the wording came from the Department for Education, the sentence needs no citation.

True or false.

• True
• False

A writer is unsure where the comma belongs after the opening clause of an illustrative sentence about a writing workshop. Which version places it correctly?

Select one.

• When the workshop ended, the writers traded drafts.
• When, the workshop ended the writers traded drafts.
• When the workshop, ended the writers traded drafts.
• When the workshop ended the writers, traded drafts.

An illustrative sentence reads: "The library was closed we studied in the student lounge." How should it be classified?

Select one.

• A comma splice, with two independent clauses joined by a comma alone
• A fused sentence: two independent clauses, nothing between them
• A fragment, with a dependent clause and no independent clause
• A compound sentence, with two independent clauses joined correctly

A student's summary of an illustrative library proposal reads: "The proposal sensibly asks the town to extend its library hours into the evening." Which single word lets an opinion leak into the summary?

Select one.

• proposal
• asks
• sensibly
• evening

A writer who states the strongest objection to a claim fairly and then answers it usually earns more of the reader's trust than a writer who skips the objection.

True or false.

• True
• False

A student drafting a rhetorical analysis of an illustrative charity ad wants to add that the charity's cause is a worthy one. According to this course, where does that opinion go?

Select one.

• Into a separate response, kept out of the analysis
• Into the thesis, so the reader knows the student's side
• After the effect in each body paragraph
• Into the last paragraph, as the analysis's closing verdict

A writer quotes Eisenhower's Farewell Address from the National Archives website, a transcript with no page numbers, and does not name Eisenhower in the sentence. Which parenthetical citation is correct?

Select one.

• (National Archives)
• (Eisenhower)
• (Eisenhower 2), using the page number on a printout
• (Eisenhower, par. 5), counting the paragraphs on the screen

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address opens: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." A student writes this version and adds "(Lincoln)": "Eighty-seven years earlier our ancestors created on this land a new country, born in freedom, and committed to the idea that all men are made equal." Which description fits the student's version?

Select one.

• An acceptable paraphrase: most of Lincoln's words were replaced, and the citation credits him
• A summary: it reduces the whole address to its central point
• A quotation: it keeps Lincoln's meaning, so it counts as his words
• Patchwriting: Lincoln's sentence shape survives with synonyms swapped in

A student's reflection says, "I learned how to cut deadwood from my sentences." Which part of the two-part test does the sentence fail, and why?

Select one.

• Evidence-based, since it points to no essay where the cutting shows
• Specific, since cutting deadwood is not a skill a writer can name
• Both parts, since a one-sentence reflection is too short to count
• Neither part, since naming a skill is all a reflection must do

A writer's draft says, "The plan is affordable, but the timeline is tight." She is conceding the tight timeline and wants the reader to remember that the plan is affordable. Which version puts that strength in the main clause and at the end?

Select one.

• The plan is affordable, but the timeline is tight.
• While the plan is affordable, the timeline is tight.
• Although the timeline is tight, the plan is affordable.
• The plan is affordable; the timeline, however, is tight.