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Answering Revision Questions

Other reading tests ask you to find problems in a piece of writing and select the most effective revisions. Once again, you must carefully read the selection, noting any confusing or rough spots. Follow these tips:

  • ▶ Plan your time. Read the passage before trying to answer questions. You need to understand the topic, focus, and purpose of the piece to select the best revisions.
  • ▶ Underline problem spots. In your first read through, make note of any problems you find so that you will be aware of some of the issues before you are asked about them.
  • ▶ Read each question and watch for text references. If the question directs you to the second paragraph or the sixth sentence, go to that spot to search for the problem that is mentioned. (You may have already underlined it.)
  • ▶ Imagine how you would fix the problem. By first considering your own revision strategies, you’ll be better equipped to select the right revision strategy from among those offered.
  • ▶ Read the multiple-choice answers and seek the best response. Remember that sometimes more than one answer will be correct, and you will need to select “All are correct” or “Both a and b are correct.”
  • ▶ If you are stumped by a question, write a question mark by it and move on. Once you finish the other questions, you can return to any question marks. Sometimes after answering other questions, your brain will have worked out a solution to an earlier problem.
  • ▶ Recognize the different types of revision questions:
  • Error-identification questions ask you to indicate which sentence has a specific type of error, or what type of error exists in a specific sentence.
  • Error-correction questions require you to select the best strategy or option for correcting an error or revising a sentence.
  • Sentence-combining questions require you to join two related sentences into one by choosing the best option for combining the ideas.
  • Sentence-addition questions require you to add a sentence to the existing material—often a thesis statement, topic sentence, or concluding sentence—by selecting from a set of options.
 

Your Turn Use the tips above as you carefully read the article excerpt at the top of the facing page and answer the revision questions about it. (Check your answers by going to thoughtfullearning.com/h210.)

 
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Pathways to Learning

(1) In brain science, connections rule. (2) A thought that has a single neural pathway is an ephemeral idea it will flit away and be gone forever. (3) A thought that has multiple neural pathways has real staying power. (4) But how can we develop these complex neural pathways?

(5) One simple method is to start the neural pathways in different locations. (6) For example, when you read, a thought enters your brain through your eyes, which route the thought to the occipital lobe of your brain. (7) The impulse then shoots to the temporal lobe, which deciphers language, before going to the frontal lobe for logical analysis. (8) That’s one path. (9) Then you can speak the idea aloud in your own words, and the path starts in the temporal lobe to formulate language and then shoots through the cerebellum, which controls the motor neurons that make your mouth form words, and then propagates through air to enter your ears, where it is decoded again and makes its way back to the logic centers of your brain. (10) That’s another path.

(11) So by engaging an idea in multiple ways reading, speaking, listening, writing, thinking, reflecting, moving you trace many pathways through your brain and create a deep connection.

 
  1. How can the run-on sentence in the first paragraph be fixed?
    1. It can be split into two separate sentences.
    2. It can be fixed with a comma and a coordinating conjunction.
    3. It can be fixed with a semicolon.
    4. The word “it” can become “that.”
    5. All are correct ways to fix the run-on.
  2. In the second paragraph, which is a rambling sentence?
    1. Sentence 6
    2. Sentence 7
    3. Sentence 8
    4. Sentence 9
    5. Sentence 10
  3. How can you fix a rambling sentence?
    1. Connect it to other sentences.
    2. Break it into shorter sentences.
    3. Delete parts that aren’t on topic.
    4. Both b and c
    5. None of these
  4. In sentence 11, the words “reading, speaking, listening, writing, thinking, reflecting, moving” should be set off from the rest of the sentence. What punctuation mark should be used before and after this series?
    1. comma
    2. dash
    3. semicolon
    4. quotation mark
 
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Additional Resources

Web Page: Introduction to Sentence Combining