View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Do criticism writers need to take a stance on a show?

2. What stops Americans from writing memoirs?

3. Why do writers need to stick to rules?

4. What advice does Zinsser give to employees who want to change business writing?

5. Where is there an opportunity for great creative writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do writers need to develop their own voice? How does writing compare to other art forms?

2. What is a good way to learn how to write with humor? How much humor should be used?

3. Why are Americans scared to write about themselves?

4. What tense do business writer stend to use that hurts their writing?

5. What needs to be described in a travel article?

6. Explain some of the choices that writers have to take when editing?

7. What are some of the hardest parts of writing about performances?

8. Why is bad to fall into cliches when travel writing?

9. Why is there an attitude that certain people are only meant to learn certain subjects and skills like writing or science?

10. Why is corporate speak the norm in business writing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Writing as well as you can is hard. What has been the hardest part about writing as well as you could for this class? Was it the editing? The bracketing? Hearing your peers responses or responding to your peers? Evaluate your experience in the class and explain whether it was positive or negative.

Essay Topic 2

What are ways that politicians can better their speech writing style? What are some common political cliches you have heard recently? What is it about cliches that tend to always make it into speeches? Touch on human emotion with your response.

Essay Topic 3

Change the rhythm of the following two sentences to a more accurate rhythm based on the words:

They walked slowly. The cars zoomed past them in an endless glow of white and red lights as they elongated their glides.

Answer: The first sentence should be elongated to give a slow pace to the sentence. The second sentence should be short and crisp. The words can be exchanged between sentences.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 886 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample