The GED Language Arts,Writing Exam - Mechanics

Like therules that govern usage, the rules that govern sentence mechanics help us keep our sentences and their meanings clear.. Correct use of punctuation will be tested, but comma quest

M ECHANICS refers to the rules that govern punctuation marks, capitalization, and spelling Like the

rules that govern usage, the rules that govern sentence mechanics help us keep our sentences and their meanings clear

Since the GED Writing Test was revised in 2002, the only spelling that is tested is homonyms, possessives, and con-tractions Correct use of punctuation will be tested, but comma questions will generally be limited to instances where

a comma is necessary to eliminate or prevent confusion

 P u n c t u a t i o n

Punctuation marks are the symbols used to separate sentences, express emotions, and show relationships between

objects and ideas Correct punctuation makes your meaning clear and adds drama and style to your sentences Poor punctuation, on the other hand, can lead to a great deal of confusion for your readers and can send a message other than the one you intended For example, take a look at the following two versions of the same sentence:

Don’t bother Xavier.

Don’t bother, Xavier.

WHEN DO you need a comma? When should you use a dash or

semicolon? How do you know when something should be capitalized? These questions and more will be answered in this chapter You will review the basic rules of mechanics so that you can answer GED questions about spelling, capitalization, and punctuation

These sentences use the same words, but have two

very different meanings because of punctuation In the

first sentence, the comma indicates the speaker is telling

the reader not to bother Xavier In the second sentence,

the speaker is telling Xavier not to bother Here’s

another example of how punctuation can drastically

affect meaning:

You should eat Zak so you can think clearly

dur-ing your interview.

Because this sentence is missing some essential

punc-tuation, the sentence says something very different from

what the author intended The speaker isn’t telling the

reader to eat Zak; rather, she’s telling Zak to eat The

sen-tence should be revised as follows:

You should eat, Zak, so you can think clearly

dur-ing your interview.

Punctuation helps create meaning, and it also has another important function: It enables writers to express

a variety of tones and emotions For example, take a look

at these two versions of the same sentence:

Wait—I’m coming with you!

Wait, I’m coming with you.

The first sentence clearly expresses more urgency and excitement, thanks to the dash and exclamation point The second sentence, with its comma and period, does not express emotion; the sentence is neutral

Punctuation Guidelines

There are many rules for punctuation, and the better you know them, the more correctly and effectively you can punctuate your sentences The following table lists the main punctuation marks and guidelines for when to use them

Connect complete sentences semicolon [;] A semicolon can connect two

show that two ideas are related.

comma [,] and a conjunction Leslie is coming, but Huang is staying

[and, or, nor, for, so, but, yet] home.

dash [—] (less common, but Hurry up—we’re late!

more dramatic) Connect items in a list comma [,] but if one or more His odd shopping list included

items in that list already have a batteries, a box of envelopes, and a

comma, use a semicolon [;] can of spam.

The castaways included a professor, who was the group’s leader; an actress; and a millionaire and his wife.

Introduce a list of three or colon [:] There are three things I want to do

sky-Introduce an explanation colon [:] You know what they say about real

“answers” what precedes)

Introduce a quotation colon [:] or comma [,] She yelled, “Let’s get out of here!”

Indicate a quotation quotation marks [“ ”] “To be or not to be?” is one of the

most famous lines from Hamlet.

Indicate a question question mark [?] What time is it?

“How much longer?” he asked.

Connect two words that work hyphen [-] mother-in-law, turn-of-the-century

together as one object or modifier poet, French-fried potatoes

Separate a word or phrase dash [—] I never lie—never.

for emphasis

We’re late—very late!

Separate a word or phrase that commas [,] Elaine, my roommate, is from

told me, was “Boo-boo.”

Separate a word or phrase that parentheses [( )] There is an exception to every rule

information

Show possession or contraction apostrophe [’] Why is Lisa’s wallet in Ben’s

backpack?

Comma Rules

Many mechanics questions will deal with commas, the

most common punctuation mark within sentences The

presence and placement of commas can dramatically

affect meaning and can make the difference between

clarity and confusion The previous chart lists four

comma uses, but there are several others The following

is a complete list of comma rules If you know them, then

you can be sure your sentences are clear You will also

be able to tell whether a comma is needed to correct a

sentence

Use a comma:

1 with a coordinating conjunction to separate two

complete sentences Note that a comma is not

required if both parts of the sentence are 4 words

or less

Let’s eat first, and then we will go to a movie I’m definitely older, but I don’t think I’m much wiser.

I love him and he loves me.

2 to set off introductory words, phrases, or clauses.

Next year, I will stick to my New Year’s resolutions.

Wow, that sure looks good!

Because the game was cancelled, Jane took the kids bowling.

3 to set off a direct address, interjection, or

transi-tional phrase

Well, Jeb, it looks like we will be stuck here for

a while.

His hair color is a little, um, unusual.

My heavens, this is spicy chili!

Sea horses, for example, are unusual in that

the males carry the embryos.

4 between two modifiers that and could replace.

He is a mean, contemptible person.

(Both mean and contemptible modify

person.)

Incorrect: Denny’s old, stamp collection is

priceless.

Correct: Denny’s old stamp collection is

priceless.

(You cannot put “and” between old and

stamp; old describes stamp and stamp

modi-fies collection They do not modify the same

noun.)

5 to set off information that is relevant but not

essential (nonrestrictive)

Essential, not set off:

The woman who wrote Happy Moon is

com-ing to our local bookstore.

(We need this information to know which

woman we’re talking about.)

Nonessential, set off by commas:

The dog, lost and confused, wandered into the

street.

(The fact that the dog was lost and confused

is not essential to the sentence.)

Essential, not set off:

Witnesses who lie under oath will be

prosecuted.

Nonessential, set off by commas:

Leeland, who at first refused to testify, later admitted to lying under oath.

6 to separate items in a series.

The price for the cruise includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and entertainment.

The recipe calls for fresh cilantro, chopped onions, diced tomatoes, and lemon juice.

7 to set off most quotations As a general rule,

short quotations are introduced by commas while long quotations (several sentences or more) are introduced by colons All speech in dialogue should be set off by commas

“Let’s get going,” he said impatiently.

Rene Descartes is famous for the words, “I think, therefore I am.”

Joseph said, “Please forgive me for jumping to conclusions.”

8 to set off parts of dates, numbers, titles, and

addresses

She was born on April 30, 2002.

Please print 3,000 copies.

Tiberio Mendola, MD, is my new doctor Please deliver the package to me at 30 Willow Road, Trenton, NJ.

9 to prevent confusion, as in cases when a word is

repeated

What it is, is a big mistake.

After I, comes J.

 C a p i t a l i z a t i o n

Capitalization is an important tool to help us identify (1)

the beginning of a new sentence and (2) proper nouns

and adjectives Here are six rules for correct capitalization:

1 Capitalize the first word of a sentence.

Please close the door.

What are you trying to say?

If you are quoting a full sentence within your

own sentence, use a capital letter, unless you

introduce the quote with that.

The author notes, “A shocking three out of

four students admitted to cheating.”

The author notes that “a shocking three out of

four students admitted to cheating.”

If you have a full sentence within parentheses,

that sentence should be capitalized as well (and

the end punctuation mark should be within the

parentheses)

He was expelled for repeatedly violating the

school’s code of conduct (He was caught

stealing and cheating several times.)

2 Capitalize proper nouns A proper noun is the

name of a specific person, place, or thing (as

opposed to a general person, place, or thing) See

the table at the bottom of this page

3 Capitalize the days of the weeks and months of

the year, but not the seasons.

It was a warm spring day in May.

Wednesday is the first official day of autumn.

4 Capitalize the names of countries, nationalities,

geographical regions, languages, and religions

He has traveled to Brazil and Tunisia She is half Chinese, half French.

She is from the South.

(But, Drive south for five miles.)

We speak Spanish at home.

He is a devout Catholic.

Jennifer Johnson (specific person) the lady

Lincoln Memorial (specific monument) impressive memorial/monument

S.S Cole (specific ship) naval carrier

Dade High School (specific school) our high school

Precambrian Age (specific time period) long ago

Microsoft Corporation (specific company) that company

5 Capitalize titles that come before proper names.

Judge Lydia Ng Lydia Ng, judge in the

Fifth District Professor Lee Chang Lee Chang, professor of

physical science Vice President Tilda Stanton Tilda Stanton,

vice president

6 Capitalize titles of publications, including

books, stories, poems, plays, articles, speeches,

essays, and other documents, and works of art,

including films, paintings, and musical

composi-tions

Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica captures

the agony of the Spanish Civil War.

Read Susan Sontag’s essay “On Photography”

for class tomorrow.

The Declaration of Independence is a sacred

document.

 S p e l l i n g

As noted earlier, spelling questions on the GED are limited to homonyms, contractions, and possessives The spelling of these words is reviewed below

Contractions and Possessives

Confusion between contractions and possessives results

in some of the most common spelling mistakes

Contractions are words that use an apostrophe to show

that a letter or letters have been omitted from the

word(s) Possessive pronouns indicate ownership of

objects and ideas They do NOT take an apostrophe

Homonyms are words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings Here are some of the most com-mon hocom-monyms:

accept to take or receive

affect (verb) to have an influence

effect (noun) the result or impact of something

all ready fully prepared

bare (adj) uncovered; (verb) to uncover

bear (noun) animal; (verb) to carry or endure

brake (verb) to stop; (noun) device for stopping

break (verb) to fracture or rend; (noun) a pause or temporary stoppage

buy (verb) to purchase

by (preposition) next to or near; through

desert (noun) dry area; (verb) to abandon

dessert sweet course at the end of a meal

everyday ordinary; daily

hear (verb) to perceive with the ears

here (adverb) in this place

know to understand, be aware of

loose (adj) not tight; not confined

lose (verb) to misplace; to fail to win

may be might be (possibility)

morning the first part of the day

passed past tense of pass (to go by)

past beyond; events that have already occurred

patience quality of being patient; able to wait

patients people under medical care

personal (adj) private or pertaining to the individual

personnel (noun) employees

presence condition of being

principal most important; head of a school

principle fundamental truth

right correct; opposite of left

write produce words on a surface

seen past participle of see

than used to compare (he is taller than I)

then at that time, therefore (first this, then that; if you think it’s good, then I’ll do it)

their possessive form of they

there location; in that place

through in one side and out the other; by means of

to (preposition) in the direction of

too (adverb) in addition; excessive

waste (verb) to squander; (noun) trash

weather climatic conditions

whether introducing a choice

witch practitioner of witchcraft

On the GED Language Arts, Writing Test, questions about organization are designed to measure your

ability to organize ideas effectively You may be asked to identify the best sequence of sentences or para-graphs, the best place to move a sentence or paragraph, or the best sentence or paragraph to eliminate

to improve a paragraph’s unity or coherence

This section reviews three aspects of organization:

1 essay structure and organizational patterns

2 effective paragraphs

3 transitions

 E s s a y S t r u c t u r e a n d O r g a n i z a t i o n a l P a t t e r n s

Most nonfiction texts have the basic underlying structure of main idea → support They begin with a main idea (some-times called the thesis or theme of the text) that controls the whole passage It is this idea that the text will develop The rest of the text then provides support for that idea in the form of examples, definitions, reasons, and so on Most

paragraphs function this way, too In fact, you can think of a paragraph as a mini-essay.

THE LANGUAGE Arts, Writing Test includes questions about

organization: how ideas are arranged in a text This chapter reviews key strategies and patterns that writers use to effectively organize their ideas

On this basic level of main idea → support,

every-thing in the passage or paragraph should support or

develop that main idea When sentences or paragraphs

lose focus or stray from that controlling idea, the passage

or paragraph loses its effectiveness

Writers can use several different strategies for

organ-izing their support One of these strategies often serves as

the overall organizing principle for the text, while

indi-vidual sections may use other techniques as well For

example, imagine an essay comparing and contrasting

two film versions of Frankenstein The support will be

organized by comparison and contrast But the writer

may also use other organizational techniques within that

comparison and contrast structure For example, he or

she may use order of importance when explaining what

makes one version better than the other

The four most common organizational patterns are:

1 chronological order

2 order of importance

3 comparison and contrast

4 cause and effect

To answer many of the questions about organization

on the GED, you will need to be able to determine the

writer’s purpose and to recognize organizational patterns

on both the essay and paragraph levels By identifying the

organizational pattern, you can determine where to

insert sentences or paragraphs and whether any

sen-tences or paragraphs are misplaced, such as a sentence

that is out of chronological order

Chronological Order

When writers use time as their main organization

prin-ciple, it is called chronological order They describe events

in the order in which they did happen, will happen, or

should happen Much of what you read is organized in

this way, including historical texts, instructions and

pro-cedures, and essays about personal experiences

Passages organized by chronology typically use a lot of

transitional words and phrases to help us follow the

pas-sage of time The transitions help us see when things

happened and in what order They help us follow along

The following is a list of some of the most common chronological transitions:

first, second, third, etc before

immediately suddenly soon

later in the meantime at last eventually finally afterward

The third paragraph of the Batman text from page 30 uses this organizational pattern The transitions are underlined:

Kane’s Batman was a big success right from the start The masked hero soon moved from comic books to its own newspaper strip, and in 1943, Bat-man episodes were aired on the radio In 1966, live-action Batman shows hit the TV screen The series was wildly popular, and the syndicated show still airs today on channels like the Cartoon Network.

Order of Importance

With this organizational pattern, ideas are arranged by

rank instead of time What’s most important comes first

or last, depending upon the writer’s purpose

Organizing ideas from most important to least important puts the most essential information first Many writers do this when they are offering advice or when they want to be sure readers get the most impor-tant information right away Newspaper articles, for example, generally use this structure They begin with

the most important information (the who, what, when,

where, and why of the event) so readers don’t have to

read the whole article to get those key facts Details and background information come later in the article When writers move from least to most important, they save their most important idea or piece of infor-mation for last Writers often use this approach when