Do you know today’s professional writing rules? Here is a quiz to test your skills. If you get stuck along the way, scroll down to RESULTS. 😊
PROFESSIONAL WRITING QUIZ
1. What three kinds of POV (point of view) are used in the example below? How should this be fixed?
Alayna had driven two miles when she realized she forgot her credit card on the desk. She smacked her head. I should have put it in my wallet immediately. Wavering between going back or not, she didn’t pay attention to traffic. Little did she know, a car accident up ahead would make the decision for her.
2. Where are the three sequence problems?
The Rottweiler growled as someone pounded on the door. Grayson recognized Denny after peeking out the nearly covered side window. Denny wanted his money, and Grayson didn’t have it. Better to pretend he wasn’t home. His dog growled and snarled louder since he decided not to stop her. Denny wouldn’t dare break in.
3. What are the four errors in the dialogue below?
At the park, Isaac grabbed Olivia’s hand and pointed to a bench.
“Hold on Olivia, let’s sit down a second.”
“Why Isaac? I thought we were going to walk all around the lake.”
He snorted, “We will, Olivia, but I have a stone in my shoe.”
4. Where are the incorrect or unnecessary dialogue tags below?
I answered the phone, half asleep. “Mom?” I asked groggily.
“Good morning,” my mom chirped like a bird. “It’s nine in the morning. I’ve been up with the sun.”
“Goodbye. I need to sleep!” I yelled at her.
“Wait—this is important. Don’t hang up.” She sounded serious.
I stayed on the line. “What’s going on?”
5. Can you identify the fourteen punctuation errors below?
In the darkening woods, Cora looked anxiously over at Lukas. “I think we’re lost.”
“No – we’re not.” He tromped forward.
She hurried to keep up with him (as best as she could). He would never admit to being ‘lost’.
Yanking on his sleeve, she tried to reason with him. “But… I thought we went by this crooked stump a….while back already.”
He turned and looked down at her. “I know exactly where we are; we are NOT lost.”
She shivered. “But what if …”
He interrupted her. “No ‘what ifs.’ Taking her hand, he squeezed it. “Have a little self confidence. Or at least have confidence in me. OK? ”
She nodded, what else could she do?
6. Change the example below to be showing, not telling.
Vilma was very nervous and felt it in her stomach sitting on the ledge of the boat overlooking the choppy, dark Pacific ocean. She fidgeted with the snorkeling gear. She wondered if it was on right. She worried that she might get water in her lungs and choke. She feared something might happen and she couldn’t make it to the top to get air.
A loud voice boomed. “Group three—go!”
The four people around her splashed in the water, and she was carried with them. She found herself surrounded by muffled water that was filled with bubbles. She saw other people’s flippers moving and smoothly flapping away from her. She looked up and saw the surface light, all wavy and blurry. Should she go back up or go down? It was now or never. After she took a deep breath of precious oxygen, she dove down.
RESULTS
Click HERE for a downloadable PDF of the answers.
Were those quiz examples easy or difficult? Did you understand each concept? If you had problems with two or more, you could benefit from my Professional Writing Skills Course. This would prepare you for the editing process and save you money in the long run. I am a certified college teacher, and I have created these lessons so you can easily learn these skills. You need to apply these techniques to your writing before it will be ready for editing.
My course contains seven individual lessons. Each one teaches you a specific writing technique, then provides tests (such as the ones above) to see if you’ve mastered that concept. I will personally grade your tests and give you feedback. If you don’t pass the tests the first time, I will help you identify what you don’t understand, then include second tests for free. I truly want you to excel!
The cost is $250.00 for the full course of seven lessons, and I accept Zelle or PayPal (plus the 3% transaction rate for PayPal). If you cannot ace the quiz questions above, moving on to professional critiques or edits will cost you exponentially more than learning and incorporating these techniques. So starting here not only is financially wise but also teaches you advanced skills you can apply to all of your writing!
Are you ready to take your writing to a professional level? If so, fill out this form, and we’ll connect personally about taking my Professional Writing Skills Course.
Edits by Lora 