The W riting S ection

1. The Writing Section This section will consist of an essay and multiple choice questions

2. The essay

3. Essay quick tips • Develop a point of view • Present ideas logically • Use precise language • Support your ideas with outside knowledge. Think about work, school, relationships etc.

4. Effective writing • Consistency – sequence of tenses, shift of pronoun, parallelism, noun-number agreement, subject-verb agreement • Logical expression of ideas – coordination and subordination, logical comparison, modification, word order, • Clarity and precision – vague references, wordiness, weak passive verbs • Conventions- idioms, modifiers, commas, sentence structure

5. How is the essay scored • 6 – clear and consistent mastery (may have a few errors but of high quality) • 5 – Reasonably consistent mastery (occasional errors and lapses in quality) • 4 – Adequate mastery(lapses in errors and quality) • 3 – Beginning to develop mastery (balance of strengths and weaknesses) • 2 – Little mastery (Flawed by many weaknesses) • 1 – Little or no mastery (May weaknesses interfere with meaning)

6. Approach to writing • Spend a few minutes planning • Vary your sentence structure • Use clear, precise vocabulary • Read the entire assignment • Don’t over simplify • Always use pencil • Make sure you are on topic

7. Improving sentences questions • These questions measure your ability to write clear, effective, and accurate sentences

8. Strategies for improving sentences • Read the entire sentence before you look at the choices • Remember the correct answer will be the correct version from the 5 choices • Read each choice along with the entire sentence • Look for common problems • When practicing read sentences aloud • Read more slowly than you usually do • Use your test booklet to mark the questions you skip

9. Parallelism • Simply using similar structures in a series • Example – Hawaii is famous for its beautiful beaches, and Montana is well known for its majestic mountains. • Example – We planned to go to the store, watch a movie, and to sit and read quietly. What is the problem with this sentence

10. Improving sentences questions • This section involves finding the error in sentences The hardest part about this section is the no error option with each section.

11. Approaches to answering the improving sentences questions • Read each sentence quickly but carefully • Consider each question as a cluster of true/false questions • Read aloud if possible during your practice • Examine the underlined choices A to D • Think about common mistakes people make in writing • Look for errors in idiom – words or phrases that are particular to our language

12. Participles • Participles are verbs that end in –ing or –d or –ed that change to adjectives • The playing child • The washed car • Lost opportunities • If misplaced these words form dangling participles - Tourists see statues of many famous people walking along the Philadelphia streets. (What is wrong here?)

13. Improving paragraphs • These types of questions test your writing and revising ability

14. Strategies for improving paragraphs questions • Read the essay thoroughly to determine its meaning before you look at the questions. • Read more slowly than you usually do. • Try all the options before you decide on an option • Make sure that your answer makes sense in context. • Mark questions you skip in your test booklet.

15. Possible problems with paragraphs • Avoid wordiness • Watch descriptive words • Watch redundant words • Think about what could be added to the essay • Think about anything that needs removed from the essay