Praxis CORE: Writing

Verb Tense: tells you when an action is taking place

Unsatisfied with the ending, the director considering reshooting the entire film.

Subject-Verb Agreement: one subject needs one verb/a plural subject needs a plural verb and they agree in person.

Although nutritionists have criticized pizza for being too high in fat, there is many people who continue to enjoy it.

Pronouns: agree with the antecedent (a noun that corresponds to the pronoun in the sentence)

A student who applies for a part-time job assisting Alex from Target may get more than they bargained for.

To expand the newspaper's coverage on politics, they transferred a popular columnist to the City desk.

Idioms: word combinations that sound right/go together

Words that can trick you: by, at, among, before

Many people are desensitized to violence on TV shows, but this does not mean that they are not sensitive of the real-life violence around them.

Comparison: parts of speech i.e. nouns and verbs all have the same form

Even though he is a Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel's name is still less well known than last year's Heisman Trophy winner.

Adjectives: modify a noun or pronoun

Adverbs: modify a verb, adverb -ly

Since the onset of his blindness the artist has sculpted more slow than before.

Double Negative: two negatives cannot be used in the same sentence because they cancel each other out to form a positive

The town hasn't hardly any money in its budget because of the unexpected snowplow costs.

Sounds like: The town HAS money in its budget because of the unexpected snowplow cost.

Completing Sentences: require a main subject and main verb

Last of the world's leaders to do so, the prime minister admits that terrorist credible enough to warrant the imposition of stringent security measures.

Run-On Sentence: two complete sentences joined together when they should be separated using a period, coma, semicolon

Harry Elephante was born in East Harlem, New York, the developer of the polio vaccine.

Dependent/Subordinate Clause: is linked to an independent clause using a conjunction such as because, although, since to express a complete thought

New restaurants appeared on the waterfront, however merchants were finally able to convince diners of the area's safety.

preposition

a word that indicates direction or position or connects two ideas (on, off, above, to, of, from, at)

article

a word that comes before a noun that indicates whether the noun is specific or non specific a, an, the, this

conjunction

a word that joins two words or phrases (for, and, but, or)

common noun

general thing..girl, boy, country

proper noun

Alice, Canada

subject of a sentence

who the sentence is about, the subject performs the verb

object of a sentence

not the subject and has the verb performed on it

concrete noun

physical object

abstract noun

not physical: examples - ideas, creativity, sadness

antecedent

the noun that a pronoun stands for

predicate

gives information about the subject in a sentence

dependent clause

does not express a complete thought (ex: because he got a flat tire)

wordiness

Decreases the clarity of expression with unnecessary words and tests the ability to detect redundancies (repetitions), circumlocution (point failure)and padding with loose synonyms. Choose sentences that use as few as possible to convey message clearly, economically and effectively.

Connotative meaning

A word that suggest meaning apart from what the word literally means.

Denotative meaning

A word that means literal, like dictionary definition.

Parallelism

Is parallel structure used to express matching ideas. Refers to the grammatical balance of a series of phrases, adjectives, nouns, clauses, verbs, verbals, correlative conjunctives and repetition of structural signals.

Misplaced modifier

Is one that is in the wrong place in the sentence which in all forms-words, phrases, and clauses. Usually too far away from the word or modify words. Only, nearly, and almost should be placed placed next to modify word and not in front of some other word, a verb not intended to modify.

Split infinitives

A marker that consists to plus verb. Two parts of the infinitive make up a grammatical unit that if split by placing adverb between the to and verb. Can be preferable and natural.

Find the error:

The club members agreed that each would contribute ten days of volunteer work annually each year at the local hospital.

a) agreed

b) each would contribute

c) annually each year

d) at the local hospital

e) no error

c) annually each year

The phrase "annually each year" is redundant, since "annually" and "each year" convey the same information. The sentence would be correct with either "annually" or "each year."

Find the error:

For a writer, the rarest privilege is not merely to describe her country and time but to help shape it.

a) rarest

b) is not merely

c) to describe

d) it

e) no error

d) it

The pronoun "it" is incorrectly used to refer to two nouns, "country" and "time." The pronoun required here is the plural "them."

Find the error:

The school magazine will print those who win prizes for poetry, short stories, and drama; nonfiction, however, will not be accepted for publication.

a) those who win

b) ;

c) will not

d) be accepted for

e) no error

a) those who win

In the phrase "those who win," the pronoun "those" indicates the people who win prizes. But the magazine will not print the people who win; it will print what the winners have written, or the submission of those who win prizes. The error in this question is the illogical use of a pronoun.

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out passionately for the poor of all races.

"spoke out passionately" should be replaced with:

a) spoke out passionate

b) did spoke out passionately

c) has spoke out passionately

d) had spoken out passionate

e) correct as is

e) correct as is

As a consumer, one can accept the goods offered to us or we can reject them, but we cannot determine their quality or change the system's priorities.

"As a consumer, one can accept" should be replaced with:

a) We the consumer either can accept

b) The consumer can accept

c) Either the consumer accepts

d) As consumers, we can accept

e) correct as is

d) As consumers, we can accept

The problem in this sentence concerns parallelism and agreement in pronoun number. The underlined portion of the sentence uses the singular pronoun, "one," which correctly agrees with its antecedent, "consumer." However, in the portion of the sentence that is not underlined, the first person plural, "we," is used as a subject in the second part of the sentence. To create a sentence free of agreement faults, you must look for a choice that contains both "we" and the plural of "consumer." The last choice, "As consumers, we can accept" is the only one that corrects the agreement problem and has a phrase parallel to "we can reject them," and is thus the correct answer.

Which sentence is correct?

a) The agent, passing through the crowd without being noticed by hardly anyone.

b) The agent passed through the crowd without hardly being noticed by hardly anyone.

c) The agent's passing through the crowd was not hardly noticed by anyone.

d) No one hardly noticed how the agent passed through the crowd.

e) The agent was hardly noticed as she passed through the crowd.

e) The agent was hardly noticed as she passed through the crowd.

The first choice presents two major problems: it is not a complete sentence, and the phrase "without ... hardly" is not idiomatic. Although the second, third, and fourth choices are complete sentences, each uses "hardly" in an equally unidiomatic construction. The fifth choice, the best answer, is an idiomatic and complete sentence.

Which is the main purpose of reviewing the references in a research article when one writes an academic paper?

a) To check that the authors did their own research

b) To identify additional relevant sources

c) To learn how to write citations correctly

d) To verify that the authors did not cite themselves.

e) To avoid reading other sources on the same topic.

b) To identify additional relevant sources

Sample Argumentative Essay Topic

Read the opinion stated below:

"Minimum-wage jobs are a ticket to nowhere. They are boring and repetitive and teach employees little or nothing of value. Minimum-wage employers take advantage of people because they need a job."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with this opinion. Support your views with specific reasons and examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

A 6 essay demonstrates a high degree of competence in response to the assignment but may have a few minor errors.

An essay in this category:

-insightfully explains why the concerns are important, supporting the explanation with effective links between the two sources and well-chosen reasons, examples, or details.

-incorporates information from both sources to identify and explain important concerns regarding the issue discussed in the sources

-organizes and develops ideas logically

-displays effective sentence variety

-clearly displays facility in the use of language

-is generally free from errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics

-cites both sources when paraphrasing or quoting

Score of 6 on a source-based essay

A 6 essay demonstrates a high degree of competence in response to the assignment but may have a few minor errors.

An essay in this category:

-states or clearly implies the writer's position or thesis

-organizes and develops ideas logically, making insightful connections between them

-clearly explains key ideas, supporting them with well-chosen reasons, examples, or details

-displays effective sentence variety

-clearly displays facility in the use of language

-is generally free from errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics

score of 6 on an argumentative essay

Sample source-based essay topic

See https://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/5722.pdf pages 37 & 38 for example. Use this example to write a source-based essay for practice.

Smart tips for taking the test

See https://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/5722.pdf pages 48 & 49 for smart tips regarding the writing section of the Praxis CORE