English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003
Questions
Chapter 12 Developing Your Own Writing Style
Part 5 Struttin Your Stuff with Style
True-False Questions
1. Style is found only in fiction such as novels and short stories; nonfiction writing does not have a distinctive style.
2. Only professional writers can develop a clear and distinctive writing style.
3. People in all walks of life can get ahead in part because of their ability to write clearly and effectively.
4. The ability to write well is something you are born with, like being right- or lefthanded.
5. Everyone’s writing style is as individual as his or her fingerprints, but every writing style shares many of the same characteristics.
6. In poetry, a writer might use more imagery than he or she would use in prose.
7. As a general rule, you should write just as you speak.
8. You need to adapt your writing style to suit the readers’ needs, interests, and goals.
9. Before you write anything that you wish to share with others, analyze your audience.
10. A writing rarely has more than one purpose, and the purpose is always clear and obvious.
11. Suit your sentence length to your topic; for example, when your topic is complicated or full of numbers, use short, simple sentences to aid understanding.
12. Use nouns rather than verbs to communicate your ideas.
13. Repeat key words or ideas to achieve emphasis.
14. However, only repeat the words that contain a main idea or that use rhythm to focus attention on a main idea.
15. When it comes to creating an effective and distinctive writing style, punctuation does not matter a great deal.
Completion Questions
Select the word that best completes each sentence.
1. A writer’s style is his or her distinctive way of (thinking, writing).
2. All good writing is clear and (correct, perfect).
3. Writers often change their style for different kinds of writing and to suit different (readers, moods).
4. A writer’s (diction, audience) are the people who read what he or she has written.
5. Keeping your purpose in mind as you write helps you craft a clear and appropriate (audience, style).
6. Expository writing (convinces readers, explains a topic).
7. Narrative writing (tells a story, proves a point).
8. Your Last Will and Testament is an example of writing that (explains, persuades, narrates).
9. (Effective, Confusing) writing uses sentences of different lengths and types to create variety and interest.
10. Select the (subject, predicate) of each sentence based on what you want to emphasize.
11. Unless you want to avoid assigning blame or you do not know the subject of a sentence, use the (active, passive) voice rather than the (active, passive) voice.
12. When writing informally, use the pronoun (one, you) to engage your readers.
13. Your choice of (modifiers, punctuation) also has a critical influence on your writing style because it determines the degree of linkage between sentences.
14. Use a (comma, semicolon) if you wish to show that the second sentence completes the content of the first sentence.
15. Use a semicolon and a conjunctive (adverb, adjective)—a word such as nevertheless or however—to show the relationship between ideas.
Multiple-Choice Questions
Choose the best answer to each question.
1. Style includes all the following elements except
(a) Description
(b) Dialogue
(c) Metaphors
(d) Audience
2. Which of the following is the best definition of description?
(a) Words that appeal to the five senses
(b) A character’s exact words in quotation marks
(c) Matching words, phrases, and clauses
(d) The subject of the writing
3. How many purposes are there for writing?
(a) Four
(b) Three
(c) Two
(d) One
4. Figures of speech include all the following except
(a) Metaphors
(b) Similes
(c) Voice
(d) Personification
5. The tone of Stephen King’s novels and short stories is best described as
(a) Humorous
(b) Creepy and spooky
(c) Slang
(d) Vernacular
6. All effective writing shares every one of the following characteristics except
(a) Clarity
(b) An effective tone that suits the writer’s audience and purpose
(c) An awareness of the conventions of standard written English
(d) Any words the writer wants to use
7. All the following are examples of expository writing except
(a) Encyclopedia entry
(b) Letter of recommendation
(c) Front-page newspaper story
(d) Recipe
8. All the following are examples of narrative writing except
(a) Short story
(b) Novel
(c) Newspaper editorial
(d) Funny joke
9. Your resume is best described as an example of
(a) Narrative writing
(b) Descriptive writing
(c) Expository writing
(d) Persuasive writing
10. Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction to show all of the following relationships except
(a) Contradiction
(b) Consequence
(c) Choice
(d) Addition
Further Exercises
Describe the style in each passage:
1. What, then, is the American, this new man? He is neither a European nor the descendent of an European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons now have four wives of different nations. He is an American who, leaving behind all his ancient prejudices and manners, received new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new ranks he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigor, and industry which began long since in the East; they will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which thereafter become distinct by the power of different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor; his labor is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? . . . The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions. (Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, “What is an American?”)
2. And one example, whether love or fear doth work more in a child for virtue and learning, I will gladly report; which may be heard with some pleasure and followed with more profit. Before I went into Germany, I came to Broadgate to take my leave of that noble Lady Jane Grey . . . “And how came you, madame,” quoth I, “to this deep knowledge of pleasure, and what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have attained thereunto?” “I will tell you,” quoth she, “and tell you a truth which perchance ye will marvel at. One of the great benefits that ever God gave me is that he sent me so sharp and severe parents and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly as God made the world, or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently sometimes, with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways which I will not name for the honor I bear them, so without measure disordered, that I think myself in hell till time come that I must go to Master Aylmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing whilst I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping because whatsoever I do else but learning is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book hath been so much pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it all other pleasures in very deed be but trifles and troubles unto me.” I remember this talk gladly, both because it is so worthy of memory and because also it was the last talk I ever had, and the last time that I ever saw that noble and worthy lady. (Roger Ascham, The Schoolmaster)