PEARSON RESOURCES FOR INSTRUCTORS DIAGNOSTIC and EDITING TESTS and EXERCISES to accompany 2012 Pearson English Handbooks Fourteenth Edition Revised by Trudy Zimmerman Hutchinson Community College Joseph Little Niagara University Prepared by David Anderso

Edit the following passages for comma splices, sentence fragments, and run-ons only. Each entry may have more than one error. 1) The waves pounding on the stern of the small green sailboat. Then it rounded the sharp curve in the bay so the wind and current now were flowing together. The two pushed the small craft safely home into its own small inlet. 2) A popular person in our small community is my friend Clara. Readily recognized because of her amazing laugh. Its power and infectious delight never cease to captivate me. 3) The middle-aged woman startled all her friends. Who gaped in disbelief as she quit her job, broke off her engagement, and moved halfway across the country to start a new life. Surprisingly, she’s happy, sometimes rash moves are good ones. 4) Shaney and Tannie seem alike in many ways, both earn good grades and have quick, zany senses of humor. Tannie, however, loves sports and the outdoors while Shaney prefers lying on the couch to read novels or to watch videos. 5) John and his friends from high school decided to take a month-long camping trip across the country last August. Because they had finished college and were moving to different parts of the country. Amazingly, John’s '72 Cutlass made the trip safely. 3 Editing Test II Edit the following passage. Correct any errors in capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Divide the passage into paragraphs. Make only essential changes. 1) When my husband Joe had cancer surgery five years ago, each of his family members responded just as I knew they would. John, his father, decided to organize the family’s calls. Because, of course, everything would run so much more smoothly. Thus Jane, Matt, and Jim recieved detailed sheets of instructions in the mail. Telling them which days to telephone r.j. smith hospital to talk to Joe and what presents to send. Jane, enraged, promptly threw a tantrum. Calling Matt and me to complain about her father’s overbearing behavior. “I,” she yelled, “am a Psychiatrist who knows how to handle these situations, i am not still a child.” Matt also responded predictably. By avoiding the situation. He threw himself into his work. Normally a late sleeper, Matt took to leaving at 5:00 a.m., driving on the deserted expressway and arriving at work before six a.m. In addition, he didn’t return until 11:00 p.m. When he would fall into bed so exhausted that he couldn’t worry about Joe. Jim, too, responded predictably. He fumed inside for weeks, ignored John’s instructions, and sent cartons of books to Joe. So that he would never be bored. The books were funny. Because Jim had read Norman Cousins’ book about the healing power of laughter. Within a few months, Joe recovered from the surgery-in spite of his family. 5 Editing Test III Edit the following passage. Correct any errors in capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Divide the passage into paragraphs. Make only essential changes. 1) Voice lessons have not met my expectations. I thought professor rosman’s methods, goals, and repertoire would be predictable and stuffy. Not startling and thorughly unconventional. I knew rosman’s methods were unusual at my first lesson in setember of 1990. When he asked me to pretend that I could only make grunts and had no control of my jaw muscles. Another time I had to say “Unique New York” as I went sang scales. At one lesson I even had to sing all my songs with “brr” as my only word. Rosman’s goals for me were not, to my releif, to make me sound like an opera singer. Because I wanted to sound like a torch singer. Like Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle orchestra. Rosman wanted me to enjoy singing. To support my voice with good air flow, and to sing the words as I would speak them. He didn’t make me sing opera or art songs. Although I did like the italian and french songs I sang. I sang songs that streched my voice’s range and songs that I liked. Songs such as “Can’t Help loving That Man of Mine” and “September song.” My favorites were “The Water is wide,” a folk song that James Taylor has recorded, and “Amazing Grace,” a song that Judy Collins has recorded. Voice lessons have been fun. Not what I expected. 7 Editing Test IV Edit the following passage. Correct any errors in capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Divide the passage into paragraphs. Make only essential changes. 1) Mary Strong is a librarian. Who is called Mary Prunella Clapsaddle Jones by her close friends. Because she collects strange names as other people collect rare stamps. Petite and pretty, she is witty, kind, and startlingly frank. 2) Marian and Matt are lifelong enemies. Because they are so much alike. She is bright, competitive, and energetic, he prides himself on his intellectual ability, his innate superiority, and his persistence. Whenever the two are together, fireworks flare. 3) Marooned on the mud flat, our skiff was useless for the next few hours. Until the tide came in. We sat on the bank, swatted mosquitos, and sniped at each other. We were not happy campers. 4) The wind streaming around the tall buildings, roaring down the empty cross streets. Its force lifted my loose shoe and flung it into the rain-soaked street. I was shocked and shoeless in Chicago. 5) When she was nineteen, she joined the Dolphin Players. Which produced quality plays in various small theaters in the city. She remained active in the group until she was twenty-five. When she moved to New York City to become a professional actress. 9 Editing Test V Edit the following passage. Correct any errors in capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Divide the passage into paragraphs. Make only essential changes. 1) My first sailing trip taught me two valuable lesons. First I realized that I always needed to take extra provisions. When we set out, the sky was blue and cloudless, the breeze was warm. We ate our picnic lunch within the first hour. Then we sailed for two more hours. All the way up shinglehouse slough. When we headed home, we realized that the tide had alredy turned and that we had to hurry, however, the wind had died. We decided to row. We rowed until we were near charleston bridge. Where the boat snagged on a mud flat. John and I piled out and started to push the boat through the shallow water. Hurrying to get to the deeper channel before the tide was completely out. The sun was now gone, fog and wind were swirling around the boat. We wanted more food and warmer clothing, both were at home, not in the boat. Then I learned my second lesson nature is powerful. As we reached deeper water, we realized that the waves were growing steadily higher. Although the fog was beginning to lift. Soon we were surfing on top of the waves in our little skiff. Propelled by the wind and the current. I began comparing how far I could swim with how far away the shore was. I sat huddled in the bottom of the boat. In an inch of water from the waves’ spray. Finally, we nosed the boat into the narrow inlet. We scrambled out. Mother nature was a tough teacher.