501 GRAMMAR AND WRITING QUESTIONS

1 501 GRAMMARAND WRITING QUESTIONS501 GRAMMAR AND WRITING QUESTIONSNEW YORK3rd Edition Copyright 2006 LearningExpress, rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data501 GRAMMAR & WRITING QUESTIONS . 3rd 1-57685-539-21. English language GRAMMAR Examinations, QUESTIONS , etc. 2. English language Rhetoric Examinations, QUESTIONS , etc. 3. Report WRITING Examinations, QUESTIONS ,etc. I. Title: 501 GRAMMAR and WRITING QUESTIONS . II. Title: Five hundred one grammarand WRITING QUESTIONS . III. Title: Five hundred and one GRAMMAR and WRITING '076 dc222005035266 Printed in the United States of America9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Third EditionISBN 1-57685-539-2 For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at:55 Broadway8th FloorNew York, NY 10006Or visit us 1 Mechanics.

2 capitalization and Punctuation1 SECTION 2 Sentence Structure11 SECTION 3 Agreement29 SECTION 4 Modifiers43 SECTION 5 Paragraph Development49 SECTION 6 Essay Questions95 ANSWERS103 ContentsvThis book which can be used alone, along with another WRITING -skills text of your choice, or in com-bination with the LearningExpress publication, WRITING Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day will giveyou practice dealing with capitalization , punctuation , basic GRAMMAR , sentence structure, organiza-tion, paragraph development, and essay WRITING . It is designed to be used by individuals working on their own andfor teachers or tutors helping students learn or review basic WRITING skills. Additionally, practicing with 501 Gram-mar and WRITING Questionswill greatly alleviate WRITING people grimace when faced with GRAMMAR exercises.

3 But in order to communicate with others, passtests, and get your point across in WRITING , using words and punctuation effectively is a necessary skill. Maybe you reone of the millions of people who, as a student in elementary or high school, found memorizing GRAMMAR rulestedious. Maybe you were confused by all of the exceptionsto those rules. Maybe you thought they would just comenaturally as you continued to write and , know you are not alone. It is true that some people work very hard to understand the rules, while oth-ers seem to have a natural gift for WRITING . And that s okay; we all have unique talents. Still, it s a fact that mostjobs today require good communication skills, including WRITING .

4 The good news is that GRAMMAR and WRITING skillscan be developed with by doing. It s an old lesson, tried and 501 GRAMMAR and WRITING QUESTIONS included inthese pages are designed to provide you with lots ofpractice. As you work through each set of QUESTIONS ,you ll be gaining a solid understanding of basic gram-mar and usage rules. And all without memorizing!This book will help you improve your language skillsthrough encouragement, not frustration. An Overview501 GRAMMAR and WRITING Questionsis divided intosix sections:Section 1: Mechanics: capitalization and PunctuationSection 2: Sentence StructureSection 3: AgreementSection 4: ModifiersSection 5: Paragraph DevelopmentSection 6: Essay QuestionsEach section is subdivided into short sets con-sisting of 8 20 book is specifically organized to help youbuild confidence as you further develop your written-language GRAMMAR and WRITING Questionsbegins with the basic mechanics of capitalization and punctuation , and then moves on to GRAMMAR andsentence structure.

5 By the time you reach the section on paragraph development, you ve already practiced onalmost 300 QUESTIONS . You will then continue practic-ing the skills you ve already begun to master in theprevious four sections, this time, in you get to the last section, you ll be ready towrite your own essays. How to Use This BookWhether you re working alone or helping someonebrush up on GRAMMAR and usage, this book will giveyou the opportunity to practice, practice, on Your OwnIf you are working alone to review the basics or preparefor a test in connection with a job or school, you willprobably want to use this book in combination with abasic GRAMMAR and usage text, or with WRITING SkillsSuccess in 20 Minutes a you re fairly sure of yourbasic language-mechanics skills, however, you can use501 GRAMMAR and WRITING QUESTIONS by the answer key at the end of the book not onlyto find out if you chose the right answer.

6 But also tolearn how to tackle similar kinds of QUESTIONS nexttime. Every answer is explained. Make sure you under-stand the explanations usually by going back to thequestions before moving on to the next OthersThis book will work well in combination with almostany basic GRAMMAR and usage text. You will probablyfind it most helpful to give students a brief lesson in theparticular skill they ll be learning capitalization , punctuation , subject-verb agreement, pronoun agree-ment, sentence structure, style and then have themspend the remainder of the session answering the ques-tions in the sets. You will want to impress upon themthe importance of learning by doing, checking theiranswers, and reading the explanations carefully.

7 Makesure they understand a particular set of questionsbefore you assign the next one. INTRODUCTION viii Additional ResourcesFor more detailed explanations of English grammarand usage rules, you may want to buy or borrowfrom the library one or more of the following books:Action GRAMMAR : Fast, No-Hassle Answers on EverydayUsage and Punctuationby Joanne Feierman (Fireside)The American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Prac-tical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English(Houghton Mifflin)The Blue Book of GRAMMAR and punctuation : The Mys-teries of GRAMMAR and punctuation Revealed by JaneStraus (Jane Straus Books) GRAMMAR Smart: A Guide to Perfect Usage,2nd Edition(Princeton Review)Grammatically Correct.

8 The Writer s Essential Guide toPunctuation, Spelling, Style, Usage and GRAMMAR byAnne Stilman (Writers Digest Books)The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and StylebyBryan A. Garner (Berkley Publishing Group)Quick Review WRITING : GRAMMAR , Usage, and Style byJean Eggenschwiler and Emily Dotson Biggs (CliffsNotes)Woe is I: The Grammarphobes Guide to Better English inPlain English, 2nd Edition, by Patricia T. O Conner(Riverhead Books) WRITING Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition(LearningExpress) WRITING Smart: Your Guide to Great WRITING , 2nd Edi-tion, by Marcia Lerner (Princeton Review) INTRODUCTION ix501 GRAMMARAND WRITING QUESTIONSS ince every sentence begins with a capital, the how-to s of capitalization seem like a logical place tobegin learning about language mechanics.

9 When doing the exercises in this section, refer to the following checklist. Matching your answer to a rule will reinforce the mechanics of WRITING andsecure that knowledge for you. capitalization Checklist The first word of every sentence Yes, we do carry the matching bed skirt. The first word of a quoted sentence (not just a quoted phrase) And with great flourish, he sang, Obeautifulfor gracious skies, for amber waves of grain! The specific name of a person (and his or her title), a place, or a thing (otherwise known as proper nouns).Propernouns include specific locations and geographic regions; political, social, and athletic organizations and agen-cies; historical events; documents and periodicals; nationalities and their language; religions, their membersand their deities; brand or trade names; and holidays.

10 The abbreviation for proper nouns. Government agencies are probably the most frequently to capitalize each letter. The CIAmakes me feel very secure. Adjectives (descriptive words) derived from proper :America (proper noun) the American (adjective) flag The pronounI. The most important words in a title LastMarch, I endured a twenty-hour public reading ofATale ofTwo : capitalization andPunctuation11 punctuation ChecklistPeriods At the end of a declarative sentence (sentence thatmakes a statement) Today, I took a walk tonowhere. At the end of a command or request Here s a gently burp the baby on your shoulder. At the end of an indirect question Jane asked if Iknew where she had left her keys.