UNIVERSITY OF EL SALVADOR

WESTERN MULTIDISCIPLINARY CAMPUS

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

ENGLISH COMPOSITION I PRACTICE

Students Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________
Responsible: Professor Darlene Mata
Grade: ____________________
Objective: To assess students ability to identify and correct rambling sentences, overloaded sentences, mixed and illogical
constructions and faulty parallelism in different contexts.
General directions: Read the exam completely and follow each direction in each of the parts. Use blue ink for all the answers
and red ink for underlining.
Part I. Read the following statements and write T for True and F False next to them. If it is False, please explain and
provide an example. (10 POINTS)
1. Rambling sentences tend to contain conjunctive adverbs. ______ T
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2. To ramble is to grow, extend, or wander (it means to go about from place to place usually without a plan or definite purpose)
______ T
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3. Long sentences can become confusing understandable when we put too much information in brackets _______ F
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4. Many if not most confused sentences result from a shift in sentence structure. ______ T
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5. Parallelism requires that some expressions of similar content and function should be outwardly similar. _____ F
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Part II. Read the following statements and correct any mistake you find. Write the type of sentence fault you find and
provide a revised version. Please, underline the mistake with red ink and correct it with blue or black ink. If the
statement is correct, write C next to it. (20 points)
Example:

Statement
My friends never judged me by my words or what I did.

N
STATEMENTS
1 My teachers and friends can not barely understand what the
administration of the school need. (double negatives)

Students are frustrated about being in the intermediate plateau all

the time and they consider their teachers do not help them
appropriately but at the same time they are not aware of their own
learning. (rambling sentence)
Sophia loves to dance with her friends, swimming with her coworkers, and to sing with her teachers. (faulty parallelism)

Type of sentence fault and revised version

(Faulty parallelism)
Solution: My friends never judged me by my
words or my actions.
Type of sentence fault and revised version
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________________________________________

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My students asked me could we check the test in a video

conference.
(lack of an indirect quotation)

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The dogs started playing last night, and they woke my parents, and
they went to see what happened to them, but they couldnt find
anything that could be making them play. (rambling sentence)

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The court decided that the womans welfare was not safe with her
abusive partner. (mixed construction)

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The court decided that the woman was not safe with her abusive
partner.

Part III. Read the following paragraph and correct any mistakes as needed. Please identify and underline each mistake
with red ink and rewrite it correctly with blue or black ink. (30 points)

Saturday Shock by Leecy Wise

Carlos feels something strange. What was wrong? He woke up late that Saturday, as usual. The street sounds sailed
through his window. People are talking loudly. He heard laughter, mothers calling for their children, kids play, someone yelled.
The music blared from the stand on the corner. What was wrong? In his apartment, everything was silent. He didnt hear his
wife fussing in the kitchen. Rebecca usually made a big breakfast on Saturdays.

He didnt hear his daughter, Katie, bumping her shoes or fists into Jerrys door. He didnt hear his son screamed for her
to stop. Even the dog was quiet. What was wrong? No radio. No conversation. Carlos looked at the clock across the room. Ten
oclock. Something was definitely wrong!
He pulled on his jeans and ran his hands through his hair. He went slowly to the door and listened. Nothing. He opened
the door a little and looked around. Nothing. He slid his body through the opening. His heart pumped. He could feel it pounding
in his chest. He started toward the kitchen. His feet moved slowly from heel to toe.
Becca? Jerry? Katie? he thought he heard a scuffle in the kitchen. He inched his way through the kitchen opening. He
jumped back, startled.
Happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you!!! his life and children were grinning from ear to ear. They let the dog
loose. The tittle terrier jumped into Carlos arms.
Sitting in the middle of the kitchen table was a box. The wrapping paper was bright red. A silver bow on top. They all
looked at it and held their breath.
Carlos walked to the box and slowly opened it. Inside were the keys to a dirt bike. The bike wasnt new, but it was his!
Everyone had chipped in to buy it. Carlos was speechless.
Soon his friends and other relatives began to drop by. They stood on the sidewalk, smiling, whistling, and screaming.
Carlos could not hear them. He could not think. Talk. or eat. But could drive. They watched him go around the corner.
The sound of the motor was sweet music. He had all day to hear it.
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Write a twelve-line paragraph about your experience in Composition I in this semester. Consider all the necessary
composition and grammar rules to convey a message. (20 points)
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CORRECT PARAGRAPH:
Carlos felt something strange. What was wrong? He woke up late that Saturday, as usual. The street sounds sailed through his window. People were talking loudly.
He heard laughter, mothers calling for their children, kids playing, someone yelling. The music blared from the stand on the corner. What was wrong? In his apartment,
everything was silent. He didnt hear his wife fussing in the kitchen. Rebecca usually made a big breakfast on Saturdays.
He didnt hear his daughter, Katie, bumping her shoes or fists into Jerrys door. He didnt hear his son screaming for her to stop. Even the dog was quiet. What was
wrong? No radio. No conversation. Carlos looked at the clock across the room. Ten oclock. Something was definitely wrong!
He pulled on his jeans and ran his hands through his hair. He went slowly to the door and listened. Nothing. He opened the door a little and looked around. Nothing. He
slid his body through the opening. His heart was pumping. He could feel it pounding in his chest. He started toward the kitchen. His feet moved slowly from heel to toe.
Becca? Jerry? Katie? he thought he heard a scuffle in the kitchen. He inched his way through the kitchen opening. He jumped back, startled.
Happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you!!! his life and children were grinning from ear to ear. They let the dog loose. The tittle terrier jumped into Carlos
arms.
Sitting in the middle of the kitchen table was a box. The wrapping paper was bright red. It had a silver bow on top. They all looked at it and held their breath.
Carlos walked to the box and slowly opened it. Inside were the keys to a dirt bike. The bike wasnt new, but it was his! Everyone had chipped in to buy it. Carlos was
speechless. Soon his friends and other relatives began to drop by. They stood on the sidewalk, smiling, whistling, and screaming.
Carlos could not hear them. He could not think, or talk, or even eat. But he could drive. They watched him go around the corner. The sound of the motor was sweet
music. He had all day to hear it.