Unit Assessment Skills Review: Transitions, Concision, and Source Evaluation

This review assignment will help you prepare for the upcoming unit assessment. You will practice selecting appropriate transition words, identifying the relationships they create, improving concision in writing, and evaluating the reliability of sources for research. Read each question carefully and select the best answer.

For each question, choose the transition word that best links the two ideas or sentences. For some questions, you will also answer a follow-up about the relationship created by the transition.

The weather forecast predicted rain all day. ________, the outdoor concert was postponed until next week.

What relationship does the transition word you selected in part (a) create between the two sentences?

Maria studied hard for her math test. ________, she earned the highest grade in the class.

What relationship does the transition word you selected in part (c) create between the two sentences?

Some students prefer to study in the library. ________, others find it easier to focus at home.

What relationship does the transition word you selected in part (e) create between the two sentences?

The team practiced every day after school. ________, their skills improved noticeably.

What relationship does the transition word you selected in part (g) create between the two sentences?

The museum offers free admission on Sundays. ________, it provides guided tours at no extra cost.

She was tired after a long day at work. ________, she went to the gym for her regular workout.

Concision means communicating your message fully with an economy of words. In other words, concise writing is clear and direct, using only as many words as necessary. For each question, choose the most concise way to express the idea.

Which sentence is the most concise?

The reason why the meeting was canceled was because the manager was sick.

Which sentence is the most concise?

At this point in time, we are unable to offer any discounts to customers.

Which sentence is the most concise?

There are many students who believe that school should start later in the morning.

Which sentence is the most concise?

In the event that you are late, please let me know as soon as possible.

For each question, select the best answer about evaluating sources for an informative research paper.

Which of the following sources is MOST likely to be reliable for an informative research paper on climate change?

Which factor is LEAST important when determining if a source is reliable for research?

You have just completed your first larger paper for English III (and if you have not, you better kick it into gear before those late penalties take their toll). Let's reflect upon the process. Give me a clear written response that answers the following:

1. This essay was structured for you to simply walk into it: the prompts where there for you, the structure of each paragraph was outlined for you, the sources were selected for their usefulness and reliability. Given all of this, the MAIN emphasis in learning in the process was on your composition skills (not research). When it comes to composition, clear writing for a specific purpose, and expression using sources, what did you get better at?
2. Class Companion was a regular tool for us in revision of our work. What are the main things Class Companion made you reconsider? Share with me something that it kept making you change that, now, you realize makes your communication stronger.
3. If you've followed all of the directions and completed the paper, you probably have several pages of properly formatted composition with sources to boot. Hopefully, you feel a little pride in what you ended up crafting: do you?
4. This paper is the first, but it isn't the last. The next one will require some authentic research on your part (even if you get some help from me), and it will involve a persuasive aspect; you'll need to convince somebody of something. Given all of that, what is one thing you took from THIS paper that you think will be helpful when you write another paper in the future?