Writing Skills & Essay Composition Flashcards

A student writes: 'The committee, along with its advisors, have decided to postpone the vote.' Which grammatical issue does this sentence contain, and what is the corrected form?

Answer: Subject-verb disagreement — the verb should be 'has decided' because the subject 'committee' is singular.

The grammatical subject is 'committee,' a singular collective noun. The intervening prepositional phrase 'along with its advisors' does not change the subject; it merely adds information. Therefore the verb must agree with 'committee' and should be 'has decided,' not 'have decided.'

In an argumentative essay, a writer spends three body paragraphs establishing the harms of social media on adolescent mental health, then includes one paragraph acknowledging that social media fosters community for isolated youth. Which rhetorical function does the acknowledgment paragraph serve?

Answer: Refutation through concession, which strengthens the overall argument by demonstrating awareness of counterevidence.

Acknowledging a legitimate counterargument and then showing why it does not overturn the central claim is called refutation through concession. Far from weakening the essay, this technique signals intellectual honesty and makes the overall argument more persuasive to a critical reader.

Which of the following best illustrates the difference between a 'topic sentence' and a 'thesis statement' in academic writing?

Answer: A topic sentence controls a single paragraph's argument; a thesis statement controls the argument of the entire essay.

A thesis statement establishes the overarching claim or position of the entire essay, while a topic sentence serves the narrower function of declaring the controlling idea of one specific paragraph. Both are argumentative in nature, but they operate at different structural levels.

A writer drafts the following concluding paragraph: 'In conclusion, as I have shown, poverty is bad. Governments should fix it. In summary, this essay has proven my point.' What is the PRIMARY weakness of this conclusion?

Answer: It relies on vague, unsupported assertions and meta-commentary instead of synthesising the essay's specific insights.

The conclusion fails because it replaces synthesis with empty phrases ('as I have shown,' 'this essay has proven') and retreats to vague generalities ('poverty is bad') rather than crystallising the specific analysis developed in the essay. Effective conclusions revisit the thesis in light of the evidence presented, leaving the reader with a refined understanding — not a mere summary announcement.

An essay's body paragraph opens: 'Urbanisation has accelerated inequality. Studies confirm this. Governments must act.' Which revision strategy would most improve the paragraph's cohesion?

Answer: Replace the middle sentence with a specific citation and use transitional language to connect all three ideas causally.

The paragraph suffers from abrupt, disconnected assertions. Inserting a concrete, attributed piece of evidence in place of the vague 'Studies confirm this' and linking the sentences with causal or logical transitions (e.g., 'Because…', 'This trend suggests…') creates cohesion — the reader can follow the reasoning from claim to evidence to implication.

A student is writing a formal analytical essay and uses the following sentence: 'The author, like, basically tries to show how society kind of ignores the poor.' Which aspect of register does this sentence violate, and what correction best addresses it?

Answer: It violates formal register through colloquial hedging ('like,' 'basically,' 'kind of'); these should be removed and the claim stated with precision and confidence.

Formal academic writing requires precision and confidence in language. Words like 'like,' 'basically,' and 'kind of' are colloquial hedges that signal informal speech and undermine the writer's authority. The corrected sentence should state the claim directly — for example, 'The author illustrates society's systematic disregard for those living in poverty' — without hedging or conversational filler.