TSI - Texas Success Initiative Sentence Revision and Editing Questions and Answers 3 Flashcards

Which sentence uses a colon correctly?

Answer: She packed three items: sunscreen, a hat, and water.

A colon follows a complete independent clause and introduces a list or elaboration. "She packed three items" is a complete clause, so the colon in option A is correct.

What is wrong with this sentence: "Running to catch the bus, his backpack fell off."?

Answer: Dangling modifier — the backpack was not running

The participial phrase "Running to catch the bus" should modify the subject of the main clause, but "his backpack" cannot run. This is a dangling modifier.

Which sentence correctly uses "its" versus "it's"?

Answer: It's time to update its software.

"It's" is a contraction for "it is." "Its" is the possessive pronoun. "It's time" = "It is time" (correct), and "its software" = software belonging to it (correct).

Identify the sentence with correct pronoun case.

Answer: Between you and me, the project needs more work.

After a preposition ("between"), object pronouns are required. "Me" is the correct object pronoun form; "I" and "myself" are not appropriate here.

Choose the revision that eliminates the run-on sentence: "The professor was late class started without her students were confused."

Answer: The professor was late, so class started without her, and students were confused.

The run-on contains three independent clauses fused without proper punctuation. Adding "so" and "and" with commas correctly joins them into a clear compound sentence.

Which correctly punctuates this sentence with a nonrestrictive clause: "My sister who lives in Austin is visiting next week."

Answer: My sister, who lives in Austin, is visiting next week.

A nonrestrictive (parenthetical) clause adds extra information and must be set off by commas on both sides. "who lives in Austin" is extra information, so it needs commas before and after.