Writing and Composition Flashcards
7 cards from real CTBS practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Writing and Composition flashcards as text
Which sentence contains a clear main idea supported by specific evidence?
Answer: Dogs make excellent pets because they are loyal, trainable, and provide companionship.
This sentence states a clear main idea (dogs make excellent pets) and supports it with three specific reasons (loyal, trainable, companionship).
A student writes: 'My favorite food is pizza. Pizza is round. I eat pizza on Fridays.' What is the biggest weakness of this paragraph?
Answer: The sentences do not develop or support a central idea.
Although all three sentences are about pizza, they offer unrelated facts and do not work together to support or develop a central idea or argument.
Which revision corrects the run-on sentence: 'Maria finished her homework she went outside to play'?
Answer: Maria finished her homework, and she went outside to play.
Adding a comma and the coordinating conjunction 'and' correctly joins the two independent clauses into a proper compound sentence.
What does it mean to 'revise' a piece of writing?
Answer: To improve the content, organization, and clarity of the writing
Revision involves making improvements to the content, structure, word choice, and clarity of a draft, which is different from proofreading for mechanical errors.
Which of the following is the best example of descriptive writing?
Answer: The salty breeze carried the sound of crashing waves across the warm, golden sand.
This sentence uses sensory details (salty, crashing, warm, golden) to paint a vivid picture, which is the hallmark of descriptive writing.
A student wants to write a narrative about a memorable event. Which element is MOST important to include?
Answer: A sequence of events told from a specific point of view
Narrative writing tells a story using a sequence of events from a specific point of view, which distinguishes it from other writing types like persuasive or expository.
Which word in this sentence is an example of figurative language? 'The wind whispered secrets through the trees.'
Answer: whispered
The word 'whispered' is an example of personification, a type of figurative language that gives a non-human thing (the wind) a human action (whispering).