Philosophy 3 Quizzes on English
During the first four weeks of the class, you must take at least one English quiz per week.
The quizzes together count for only 5% of your final grade, but
they are not trivial: if you do them diligently, they will prepare you for the English exam; and
if you do not do them, you will lose 5% of the possible class points, which cannot be made up.
You can retake each English quiz as many times as you like before the cut-off date.
Ask your instructor about the cut-off date and time, since it varies from semester to semester.
I will count only your highest score on each quiz. I would like everyone to
get full marks on these quizzes. Since you can take them as many times as you like,
and receive immediate feedback, there seems no reason why you shouldn't pass all these
quizzes with flying colors!
All four English quizzes are multiple choice, which means you can see the correct answers as soon
as you have submitted the quiz.
However, the English exam will NOT consist of multiple choice
questions. You will be required to retype and if necessary, correct or rewrite
ENTIRE SENTENCES, each possibly containing multiple errors.
Click the links below for specific study information for each quiz.
Study Information for English Quiz 1
Study Information for English Quiz 2
Study Information for English Quiz 3
Study Information for English Quiz 4
Quiz 1 on English: Apostrophe, Active-Passive, Accept-Except, Among-Between, Amount-Number
Avoiding passive voice See Active and Passive Voice
(explanation and selftest).
A few common confusions
accept / except
accept / except Selftest
affect / effect Selftest
Quiz 2 on English: Avoiding Run-ons and Fragments. Using commas correctly.
For review and selftests, see here.
For more information and selftests, see here.
For more information and selftests, see here.
Quiz 3 on English: Singular-Plural, Danglers, Parallelism, Wordiness, "e.g.", "i.e."
Errors
in pronoun-antecedent agreement For more information and selftests, see here.
Errors
in subject-verb agreement For more information and selftests, see here.
Danglers (aka "misplaced modifiers")
O'Conner has a whole chapter on danglers. Read it; it's a hoot! See here for another
excellent explanation, and selftests.
Parallel
construction See Parallelism (explanation and
selftest).
Avoiding wordy,
fat, redundant sentences Most students need work on this (especially students with high GPAs)! See
Writing Concisely (explanation
and selftests).
Quiz 4 on English: Miscellaneous Common Confusions and Spelling Errors
do / due ("The paper is due Friday. I know you can do it!")
know / no ("You're kidding! No way! You don't know this?")
posses (more than one posse, as in "We'll round up a posse, Sheriff")
possess (have)
sole / soul ("Now that I'm dying, my sole concern is the fate of my soul!")
udder / utter (Look this one up if you don't get it: it's too funny!)
waver / waiver
your / you’re The following words occur commonly in philosophy papers.
Spell these words correctly!
accommodate
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