ACCESS Writing Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: On the ACCESS Writing test, which element most clearly shows a student is moving from Level 3 to Level 4 proficiency?
- Using simple sentences with correct basic punctuation
- Connecting ideas with a variety of transitional phrases (Correct answer)
- Writing a single paragraph about a familiar topic
- Copying vocabulary from a word bank
Correct answer: Connecting ideas with a variety of transitional phrases
At Level 4, students demonstrate emerging control over cohesive devices like transitional phrases to link ideas across sentences.
Question 2: A student writes: 'I go to school. I learn math. I learn reading.' What writing skill should she develop next to improve this passage?
- Adding more nouns
- Combining sentences using conjunctions (Correct answer)
- Writing in past tense
- Using capital letters
Correct answer: Combining sentences using conjunctions
Combining short, choppy sentences with conjunctions like 'and' or 'because' is a key step in writing development.
Question 3: Which revision best improves the sentence 'The dog runned fast in the park yesterday'?
- The dog runs fast in the park yesterday.
- The dog ran fast in the park yesterday. (Correct answer)
- The dog running fast in the park yesterday.
- The dog did runned fast in the park yesterday.
Correct answer: The dog ran fast in the park yesterday.
'Ran' is the correct irregular past tense form of 'run'; 'runned' is a common developmental error.
Question 4: In an ACCESS Writing prompt asking students to explain how to make a sandwich, which text type is most appropriate?
- Narrative
- Persuasive
- Procedural/Expository (Correct answer)
- Poetic
Correct answer: Procedural/Expository
Explaining how to do something step-by-step is a procedural or expository text type.
Question 5: A student's paragraph has a clear topic sentence and three supporting details but no concluding sentence. What is missing?
- A hook
- A closing statement (Correct answer)
- A transition word
- A title
Correct answer: A closing statement
A concluding or closing sentence wraps up the paragraph and reinforces the main idea.
Question 6: Which sentence shows the correct use of subject-verb agreement?
- The students plays soccer after school.
- The teacher write on the board every day.
- My friends walk to the library together. (Correct answer)
- She go to the store on Saturdays.
Correct answer: My friends walk to the library together.
With the plural subject 'My friends,' the verb 'walk' correctly has no -s ending.
Question 7: On the ACCESS Writing rubric, 'linguistic complexity' primarily refers to:
- The number of paragraphs in a response
- The variety and sophistication of sentence structures used (Correct answer)
- How neatly the student writes
- Whether the student uses spell-check
Correct answer: The variety and sophistication of sentence structures used
Linguistic complexity scores reflect the range and sophistication of grammatical structures and sentence types a student uses.
ACCESS Writing Development 2
On the ACCESS Writing test, which element most clearly shows a student is moving from Level 3 to Level 4 proficiency?