1

October 29 (in addition to the Exercises on Grammar and Writing)

Exercise 1. Punctuation. Use appropriate punctuation or italics in the following sentences.
1. The men in question Harold Keene, Jim
Peterson, and Gerald Greene deserve awards.
2. Several cities participated in the airlift
Rome Italy Brussels Belgium and Paris
France.
3. Judge Carswell later to be nominated for the
Supreme Court had ruled against civil rights.
4. There was only one thing to do study till
dawn.
5. Montaigne wrote the following A wise man
never loses anything, if he has himself.
6. There was a very interesting article entitled
The New Rage for Folk Singing in last
Sunday’s New York Times newspaper.
7. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species 1859
caused a great controversy when it appeared.

Exercise 2. Mistakes. Edit the sentences below.

1. Neither Albert nor Martin have completed
the assignment, they do expect to meet the
deadline.

2. When someone has a hard time saying no

they may find life very stressful.

3. The stores all raised prices as a result of the

gasoline shortage, this was the reason we have
had fewer tourists this year.

4. A distinguished scholar and a great teacher,

Professor Smith’s famous lecture on the
pyramids are not to be missed.

5. Susan shopped for clothes in Michigan

Avenue and then demonstrated her new outfit
to all of us.

6. Each of the courses I’m considering require

so much work that I’m concerned about the
affects all that studying will have on my
health.

Exercise 3.
Which of the italicized expressions might be more suitable for an academic paper? Can
you think of additional alternatives?
 2

1. Crash test dummies are really important for / an integral part of automotive crash tests.
2. According to a recent study, just about / nearly 25% of all cell phone users view text
messaging as an important source of entertainment.
3. There has been a lot of / considerable interest in how background sounds such as music
affect an individual’s ability to concentrate.
4. We obtained robust / nice results using structural bamboo rather than timber.
5. Consumer interest in electronic billing and payment is getting bigger and bigger / increasing.

Paraphrase the colloquialisms in the following sentences:

6. The competition faced by U.S. growers from imports of fresh vegetables has gotten more
intense.
7. Many urban areas do not have enough resources to build new public schools.
8. Allergic reactions to local dental anesthesia do not happen very often.
9. The doors on these ferries were made bigger to make it easier to load and unload vehicles.

Exercise 4. Eliminating wordiness. Revise these sentences to state their meaning in fewer
words. Avoid passive voice, needless repetition, and wordy phrases and clauses.
1. Although Bradley Hall is regularly
populated by students, close study of the
building as a structure is seldom undertaken
by them.
2. He dropped out of school on account of the
fact that it was necessary for him to help
support his family.
3. It is expected that the new schedule will be
announced by the bus company within the
next few days.
4. There are many ways in which a student
who is interested in meeting foreign students
may come to know one.
5. It is very unusual to find someone who has
never told a deliberate lie on purpose.
6. Trouble is caused when people disobey
rules that have been established for the safety
of all.
7. The subjects that are considered most
important by students are those that have been
shown to be useful to them after graduation.
8. In the not too distant future, college
freshmen must all become aware of the fact
that there is a need for them to make contact
with an academic adviser concerning the
matter of a major.
9. In our company there are wide-open
opportunities for professional growth with a
company that enjoys an enviable record for
stability in the dynamic atmosphere of
 3

aerospace technology.
10. Some people believe in capital
punishment, while other people are against it;
there are many opinions on this subject.

Exercise 5. Sentence fragments. Edit the sentences below in at least two different ways.
1. The number of people own cell phones
increased from near zero to over twenty
million.
2. Some drivers use cell phones take away
their attention from the road.
3. The woman is Marion is single and joined
the company not long ago.
4. Culture shock is an emotional reaction
results from not being able to understand or
predict the behavior of people in the new
culture.
5. The first problem relates to the Chinese
government took back Hong Kong in 1997.
6. Hockey is one of the most popular sports in
Canada is played inside and outside.
7. The lawyers studied the case for many
months finally won an appeal for their client.
8. Typewritten assignments are easy to read
are easy for teachers to mark.
9. In the 1800s, prejudice was one reason for
Chinese people had only low paying jobs in
Canada.
10. It is East Asia and the Pacific the rate of
HIV infection is growing rapidly.

Exercise 6. Rewrite these sentences in an academic style:

1. You can use this model to optimize the water supply.
2. So, why did the bridge collapse? There’re a lot of reasons.
3. In addition to herbs, animal products are employed in some forms of traditional medicine
frequently.
4. So far there hasn’t been much research on how conflict influences the level of trust and
respect in a group.
5. There are several studies in Epidemiology that have shown that when people consume
alcohol in moderate amounts they have a lower risk of developing heart disease in comparison
to those people who drink a lot of alcohol.
6. Developed by computer scientists in the 1980s, data mining is a collection of methods aiming
to understand and make money from the massive data sets being collected by supermarket
scanners, intelligence satellites, and so on.

Exercise 7. Edit the edited translation (column 3)

 4

Pp. 162-163.
5