Exercise On Writing Skills

 Based on your understanding of the material covered in class, please respond to the following

Faulty Parallelism

Rewrite the unbalanced part of each sentence so that it matches the other part or parts in the sentence.

     1- In many ways, starting college at forty is harder than to start at eighteen.
     2- The little girl came home from school with a tear-streaked face, a black eye, and

          her shirt was torn.
     3- Studying a little every day is more effective than to cram.
     4- At the body shop, the car was sanded down to the bare metal, painted with

         primer, and red

         enamel was  prayed on.
     5- There are two ways to the top floor: climb the stairs or taking the elevator.
     6- While waiting for the exam to start, small groups of nervous students glanced over

          their notes, drank coffee, and were whispering to each other.
     7- In order to become a dancer, she is taking lessons, working in amateur shows, and

         auditioned for professional companies.

Slang and Clich�s

 Please replace the slang words or clich�s with formal ones:

     (1) Her boyfriend was not offended when she told him to shove off. She is able to get

          away with murder.
     (2) People who earn minimum wage can hardly make ends meet.
     (3) The party was so boring that after twenty minutes I wanted to split.

     (4) It finally dawned on me that I had not paid my telephone bill.
     (5) When I was younger, I would wake up at the crack of dawn to do my readings.


 Rewrite the following sentences, omitting needless words.

     (1) In conclusion, I would like to end my paper by summarizing each of the major

          points covered within my report

     (2) I perused several periodicals while I waited for the doctor.
     (3) We thought the television program was enjoyable, whereas our parents reacted

         with dislike to the content of the show.  

     (4) My greatest mistake that I made last week was to hurt my brother's feelings and

          then not to have the nerve to apologize and say how sorry I was.