when proofreading your writing focus on

ATI TEAS 7

ATI TEAS 7 English practice test

1. When proofreading your writing, what should be your primary focus?

A. Changing the wording to enhance originality.
B. Avoiding minor grammatical errors like typos.
C. Checking for clarity, consistency, and overall flow.
D. Avoiding replacing common words with thesaurus alternatives.

Correct answer: C

Rationale: When proofreading your writing, the primary focus should be on checking for clarity, consistency, and overall flow. This involves ensuring that the content is clear, logical, and flows smoothly from one point to the next. While enhancing originality can be important, it is secondary to ensuring that the writing effectively communicates its message. Ignoring minor grammatical errors like typos can detract from the professionalism and impact of the writing. Replacing common words with thesaurus alternatives should be done sparingly and only when it enhances the clarity or impact of the text, rather than as a routine practice during proofreading.

2. What kind of error is present in the following sentence? This summer, I'm planning to travel to Italy, take a Mediterranean cruise, go to Pompeii, and eat a lot of Italian food.

A. Parallelism
B. Sentence fragment
C. Misplaced modifier
D. Subject-verb agreement

Correct answer: A

Rationale: The correct answer is A, parallelism. The sentence contains a parallelism error because the verbs in the list are not in the same grammatical form. In a parallel structure, all items in a list should be formatted consistently. In this case, 'take a Mediterranean cruise' and 'going to Pompeii' are not parallel. 'Go to Pompeii' should be corrected to 'visit Pompeii' to maintain parallelism. Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because the sentence is a complete sentence, does not have any misplaced modifiers, and does not involve subject-verb agreement errors.

3. Which of the following phrases follows the rules of capitalization?

A. President Carter and his advisors
B. Robert Jones, the senior Senator from California
C. my Aunt and Uncle who live out West
D. the party on New Year’s Eve

Correct answer: B

Rationale: The correct answer is B. In this phrase, the words 'Senator' and 'California' are capitalized correctly since they refer to a specific position and a proper noun, respectively. 'Senator' is capitalized as it is part of the title and 'California' is capitalized as a proper noun. Choice A is incorrect because 'President' should be capitalized when it precedes a specific name, like 'President Carter.' Choice C is incorrect because 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized. Choice D is incorrect because only 'New Year's Eve' should be capitalized as it is a proper noun for the event.

4. The plump old white cat basked in the warm sunlight. Which of the following options correctly punctuates the above?

A. The plump, old, white cat basked in the warm sunlight.
B. The plump, old, white, cat basked in the warm sunlight.
C. The plump, old white cat basked in the warm sunlight.
D. The plump old white cat, basked in the warm sunlight.

Correct answer: A

Rationale: The correct answer is A: 'The plump, old, white cat basked in the warm sunlight.' Commas should be used to separate coordinate adjectives describing the cat. In this sentence, 'plump,' 'old,' and 'white' are coordinate adjectives, each providing distinct information about the cat. Option B incorrectly places a comma after 'white,' creating a nonessential element. Option C lacks commas to separate the coordinate adjectives. Option D incorrectly places a comma after 'cat,' causing a punctuation error.

5. Select the book title that does not contain a preposition.

A. The Man in the Brown Suit
B. The Secret of Chimneys
C. Murder on the Orient Express
D. And Then There Were None

Correct answer: D

Rationale: The correct answer is 'D' - 'And Then There Were None.' This title does not contain a preposition. Prepositions are words that show the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence. In this title, 'And,' 'Then,' 'There,' and 'None' are not prepositions; they are conjunctions and pronouns. Choices A, B, and C all contain prepositions: 'in,' 'of,' and 'on,' respectively. Therefore, they are incorrect answers for this question.