U.S. English AP Style Editing Skills Test (For Writing Professionals)
All but one of the following sentences require editing to correct passive voice, wordiness or redundancy. Consider the underlined phrases, and then select the sentence that does NOT require editing.
Choose the editing option that best corrects the underlined part of the following sentence. According to the chief of surgery, the risk of death from this medical procedure is about the same from ...
Choose the editing option that best corrects the underlined part of the following sentence. After an entire day of experimenting with new medications, the patient was sorry to report that her migr...
Choose the editing option that best corrects the underlined part of the following sentence. If all goes according to plan, three years from now Agatha will win the election, help pass the bills cl...
Choose the editing option that best corrects the underlined part of the following sentence. It's easy to see that the coach has still not decided whether to contest the final score, despite broodi...
Choose the editing option that best corrects the underlined part of the following sentence. The board of directors said that the company could move forward with the new plan without first seeking ...
Choose the editing option that best corrects the underlined part of the following sentence. To maintain a healthy body and mind, one must exercise, eat fruits and vegetables and refrain from cigar...
Choose the series of adjectives that best completes the following sentence. We have no doubt that the senator's meeting of "goodwill" with our arch rival will be accompanied by _________ clandesti...
Choose the series of verb forms that best completes the following passage. A doctor at the Metropolitan Clinic in Chicago claims that if women ________ and ________, their children _________ less ...
Choose the series of verb forms that best completes the following passage. If any club member _____________ suggest that he was not against opening membership to women but only against allowing th...
Choose the series of verb forms that best completes the following passage. If Sen. Hannibal ________ control his anger just a touch more, he ________ find that people react to him more positively.
Choose the series of verb forms that best completes the following passage. Our voyage would have been a different and much duller experience _________ for the family of dolphins that _________ the...
Choose the series of words or phrases that best completes the following passage. Through the complete failure of all our _________ events, we have learned that _______ is extremely difficult. Perh...
Choose the series of words or phrases that best completes the following sentence. ________ agreed that ________ of our precautions would be useless once the temperature dropped to _________.
Identify the type of error contained in the following sentence. Because I have an extreme allergy to nuts, I only ate the cake and not the pecan pie.
Read the following passage (options) and select the line that contains an error in grammar or usage.
Read the following passage and identify the line that contains an error in agreement or parallel structure: That boat has cost us a fortune so far: more than $25,000 to repair the hull after the h...
Read the following passage and identify the punctuation error it contains. Delilah's 20-page tale of derring do delighted the dignitaries who stamped their feet in approval. Reading from a dais dr...
Read the following passage and identify the punctuation error it contains. I asked Jamie if she had read Zinn's A People's History of the United States. "Yes," she replied, "and I must say it's th...
Read the following passage and identify the style error it contains. Of the two control groups, a significant number of those in Group A scored 74%, which was higher than the median score of 66% o...
Read the following passage and identify the type of grammar or usage error it contains. The baby giraffe just loved to play with the 10 puma cubs. Their games came inevitably — and painfully — to ...
Read the following passage and select the line that contains a grammar or usage error.
Read the following passage and select the line that contains an error in verb tense consistency.
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. 1)Even though Alison spends a lot of time complaining, 2)bemoaning her fate and w...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. 1)Greta, who is completely enamored of her new 2)designer handbag, is even more e...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. 1)Knowing she had no right for privacy as long 2)as she stayed in the convent, Ma...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. 1)Regina Glass, who was one of the wealthiest women 2)in the city in the 1940s, d...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. 1)So the guy breaks into our house, steals our stuff and 2)then slips on the ice ...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. 1)Why, Helen wondered, did I ever show my face in Troy? 2)There's been nothing bu...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. I was shocked to learn of our congressman's arrest. Correct me if I'm wrong, but ...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. Outsourcing our accounting and collections tasks has really laid credence to our ...
Read the following passage and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. The news of the avalanche shocked the citizens of our little town. Fortunately, h...
Read the following sentence and choose the option that shows the part of the sentence that should be edited to eliminate redundancy. Participants were informed that the rally scheduled for 9 a.m. ...
Read the following sentence and choose the option that shows the part of the sentence that should be edited to eliminate redundancy. Reps. Smith and Brown urged fellow legislators to address the n...
Read the following sentence and choose the option that shows the part of the sentence that should be edited to eliminate redundancy. The board said it would postpone its decision about appointing ...
Read the following sentence and identify the grammar or usage error it contains. The forthcoming community celebration in Nashville has many surprises in store for whomever arrives before 9 a.m. a...
Read the following sentence and identify the style error it contains. 253 students attended the rally on Nov. 23. Of those present, 56 percent belonged to the freshman class, 12 percent to the sop...
Read the following sentence and identify the style error it contains. As part of the new incentive program instituted in the second quarter, each sales employee was asked to forecast his own contr...
Read the following sentence and identify the style error it contains. Many people in the United States are awaiting the report from the U.N. inspectors.
Read the following sentence and identify the style error it contains. The flu shots were given to over a hundred people by the nursing staff in just six hours.
Read the following sentence and identify the style error it contains. We went out to buy milk but came home with copies of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," a DVD of "Charlie and the Chocolat...
Read the following sentence and identify the type of error it contains. Although the critic did not like so-called chick flicks, she had to admit that "The Devil Wears Prada" was far away the best...
Read the following sentence and identify the type of grammar or usage error it contains. The differences in the two committees had finally reached an insurmountable level; each wanted to delve in ...
Read the following sentence and identify the type of verb or tense error contained in the underlined portion. Local citizens protested the controversial evangelist's tour and threatened to riot ou...
Read the following sentence and identify the type of verb or tense error it contains. If we decided to move venues, our production process would not be likely to suffer much as long as a system of...
Read the following sentence and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. A recent study by a team of sociologists at Johns Hopkins University confirmed t...
Read the following sentence and select the option that illustrates the best course of action for an editor to take. Happiness has always and will always be an elusive element in my life.
The following sentence is devoid of punctuation. Which of the given editing options turns it into a coherent, plausible sentence? At last I met Dr. Sneeth the evil scientist who had caused such tr...
The following sentence is devoid of punctuation. Which of the given editing options turns it into a coherent, plausible sentence? The question is Mr. Wellington said Arthur whether you intend to p...
The moment had arrived for the intern to begin his first solo operation and he couldn't barely contain his excitement. Having been anesthetized, the new surgeon made his first incision into the pat...
Which course of action would an editor need to take to correct the modifier/comparison error in the following passage? "Your brother has been behaving strangely lately," Theo remarked. "I mean, I ...
Which of the following sentences contains an error in grammar or usage?
Which of the following sentences contains an error in grammar or word usage?
Which of the following sentences does NOT contain a grammar or usage error?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct a comparison error?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct a modifier usage error?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct an error in subject-verb agreement?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct errors in punctuation?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct errors in word choice, word usage or spelling?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct grammar or usage errors?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct the unnecessary use of passive voice?
Which of the following sentences does NOT require editing to correct voice, wordiness or redundancy?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct an error in modifier usage?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct an error in parallel structure?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct an error in pronoun-antecedent agreement?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct an error in subject-verb agreement?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct errors in punctuation?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct errors in verb tense?
Which of the following sentences requires editing to correct grammar or usage errors?