Test Prep Test Prep Certifications PRAXIS-WRITING-SECTION Questions & Answers

• Question 1:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Until you sit down and talk to a person, you don't really know them.

  A. No error

  B. you don't know them really.

  C. you do not really know them.

  D. you do not really know him.

  E. you don't really know him or her.

  Correct Answer: E

  Explanation: A person is singular, so the words him or her are appropriate.

• Question 2:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Peter is the best candidate for the job because he has years of experience managing large project teams, balancing department budgets, and supervising many employees.

  A. best

  B. because

  C. balancing department budgets,

  D. and supervising many employees

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: E

  Explanation: The correct answer is "No error" because there are no errors in this sentence. Because two items from the list of Peter's past job duties are offered as choices, you might be tempted to think that they lack parallel construction. Parallel construction errors are often highlighted on standardized tests and commonly occur in student writing, so you should always check for them. However, this list contains like items, similar construction, and the same verb tense throughout. It has no errors in parallelism.

• Question 3:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Adam's scissors isn't sharp enough to cut the fabric correctly.

  A. Adam's

  B. isn't

  C. enough

  D. correctly

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: B

  Explanation: The correct answer is "isn't" because the verb "isn't" doesn't agree with the subject "scissors." It's pretty obvious that "scissors isn't" doesn't sound correct when spoken aloud; you would naturally say "scissors aren't" if you were describing the condition of Adam's scissors. However, you've undoubtedly learned from other examples that you can't always trust what sounds right to your ear. This sentence is especially tricky because "scissors" is singular noun, so you might be tempted to think that "isn't" is the correct verb. However, there are a few words, like "scissors" and "pants," that act like plural nouns even when there is just one of them. Like all grammar rule exceptions, these singular nouns that behave like plural nouns have to be memorized.

• Question 4:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  To who should I mail the payment for our new refrigerator and stove?

  A. who

  B. I

  C. and

  D. stove?

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: A

  Explanation: The correct answer is "who" because "who" is the object of this sentence. Remember that "who" is the correct pronoun choice for the subject of a sentence, while "whom" is always an object. While the object generally comes closer to the end of most sentences, questions are often structured with the object near the beginning. To correct this sentence, just substitute "whom" for "who." Another hint that this sentence requires "whom" rather than "who" is that the word falls after the preposition "to." Therefore, even if you didn't recognize "who" as the object of the sentence, you could still see that it's the object of a preposition and needs to be changed to "whom."

• Question 5:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  The sale ends at 11:00, so you should get there quick if you want to take advantage of the discount prices.

  A. sale

  B. you

  C. there

  D. quick

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: D

  The correct answer is "quick" because "quick" is an adjective and should not be used to describe a verb. In this sentence "quick" is the manner in which the person should get to the store. To correct the problem, simply substitute the adjective "quick" with the adverb "quickly."

• Question 6:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Although Neal loves almost everything about living in the forest, he does dislike raking the tree's leaves that blanket his lawn each fall.

  A. Although

  B. does

  C. tree's

  D. fall

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: C

  Explanation: The correct answer is "tree's" because there are many trees that shed all those leaves each fall. To show that a singular noun owns something, the apostrophe goes in front of the "s." To show that a plural noun own something, the apostrophe goes in after of the "s." Changing "tree's" to "trees'" would correct the error in this sentence by reflecting that the leaves in Neal's yard come from many trees, not just one.

• Question 7:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Every farmer knows that baling wet grass is dangerous because heat can build in a tightly packed bale and starts a fire.

  A. Every

  B. baling

  C. tightly

  D. starts

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: D

  Explanation: The correct answer is "starts" because the tense of the verb "starts" doesn't agree with the rest of the sentence, even though it may seem to agree with "knows" at first glance. Note, however, that "know" has to agree with "farmer" while "starts" describes the action of "heat" and must agree with that noun instead. Changing "starts" to "start" will correct the problem.

• Question 8:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Although the lion's share of oil wells is owned by large oil companies, there are individuals who earn their living by selling the oil from their own, private wells.

  A. is

  B. there

  C. who

  D. their

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: E

  Explanation: The correct answer is "No error" because this sentence contains no errors. Although the phrase "lion's share of oil wells is" may sound strange because "is" doesn't agree with "wells," it is grammatically correct. The true subject of the sentence is not the plural "wells": it's the singular "share." "Of oil wells" is simply a prepositional phrase that modifies "lion's share."

• Question 9:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  Julia loves working for that particular company, but finds her actual job duties rather boring, and she thinks she would enjoy transferring to a different department.

  A. company,

  B. actual

  C. boring,

  D. would enjoy transferring

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: C

  Explanation: The correct answer is "boring," because the comma after "boring" isn't sufficient to join these two independent clauses. The result is a run-on sentence. To correct this example, you could place a period after "boring," remove the next "and," and make the rest a new sentence starting with "She thinks." You could also replace the comma after "boring" with a semicolon and remove the next "and" to join the two parts together correctly and show their close relationship to each other. Remember that adding a comma to a run-on sentence doesn't correct the run-on: it just creates a run-on with a comma.

• Question 10:

  Identify the error in the following sentence:

  It's not my fault that the car has a dent in its rear bumper: the driver behind me failed to stop at the red light.

  A. It's

  B. that

  C. its

  D. failed to stop

  E. No error

  Correct Answer: E

  Explanation: The correct answer is "No error" because there is no error in this sentence. This sentence does, however, feature the commonly confused "it's" and "its." Remember that "its" is the possessive form of "it" and "it's" is a contraction of "it is." Whenever you're not sure which word is correct, read the sentence aloud and substitute "it is" for "its" and "it's." Would it make sense to say "It is not my fault" or "the car has a dent in it is rear bumper"? Obviously, "it is" works in the first part of the sentence, but not in the second. "It's" and "its," therefore, are used correctly in this example.