Kỹ năng cơ bản cho sinh viên: Viết học thuật cho mọi nhu cầu

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IMPORTANT WRITING

Your essay and circumstances (such as ESL) will enable them to determine whether or not you will be exempted from freshman English, required to take freshman English, required to take remedial English before you can take freshman English, or, in some schools, take a developmental class between remedial and freshman English. They mistakenly believe that their high school English scores or SAT scores will count more than this test or that all they have to do is write something,any- thing, and as long as it seems to answer the question and seems long enough, it will be sufficient.

W RITING FOR A LL Y OUR C OLLEGE N EEDS

Argumentation Addresses counter- Addresses counter- Addresses most Fails to address most Does not address arguments, makes arguments, estab- counterarguments counterarguments; counterarguments, concessions, and lishes credibility for but may neglect some does not establish establish credibility, establishes credibility. Organization Ideas are well- Ideas are well- Essay has organizing Organizing principle No organizing organized; good organized; good principle but pattern may be unclear; principle; weak or transitions through- transitions through- may be disrupted; many transitions missing transitions out most of essay.

BASIC GRAMMAR

It has been used for medicinal purposes, sacred ceremonies, and relaxation, most common today would be medicinal and relaxation, it is proven that marijuana aids in headaches, various aches and pains, anti-nausea, glaucoma, and sleep. (3) Most common today would be using marijuana for medicinal and relaxation purposes because it is proven that marijuana aids in relieving headaches, various aches and pains, nausea, glaucoma, and sleeplessness.

TEST YOUR SKILLS

Bill Gates, in addition to the four other corporate officers of Microsoft, wants to see (his/her, their) company as the giant of the computer world. It’s much easier to spot errors when you know what you are looking for than it is to find them in the context of an actual essay. In the piece below there are errors in sentence structure, agreement of subject/verb, agree- ment of pronoun/antecedent, and words commonly confused.

(17) But her smiling face was the best Christmas present for Matt and knowing that her hero was going to be fine was a wonderful present for Nan to.

ANSWER KEY

When visiting colleges, my parents and I traveled to five different schools, each in a different city, each a very different kind of school. They had very few books or magazine collections at all; the magazines were all online which is a good thing because it makes it easier to read when doing research. Just like writer’s block stops you from writing, drifting away while reading can be terribly frus- trating, and it can derail an otherwise determined acade- mic career.

For most academic read- ing, whether it is a textbook (non-fiction), a novel or short story (fiction), or a piece of poetry, effective reading should mean that you can paraphrase, or put in your own words, what you have just read.

READING

But it emphasizes a very important process that you must undertake every time you read, and that process is making con- nections.It’s easy to use an orange highlighter to under- line what you believe are important facts and details as you read. If you read the paragraph as a whole you should recognize that Paul is being suspended from Pitts- burgh High School, and that misdemeanors are prob- ably the wrong deeds oroffensesthat he has committed. So, if Paul is wearing a red car- nation, it most likely means that he is trying hard to dress up a coat that is a little worn because of a torn collar, and he is trying to look like a fine gentleman or a dandy.

Statement four is also a claim of opinion or belief.It isn’t telling us whether or not there are affir- mative action programs, which would be a claim of fact, but it is telling us that these programs are morally cor- rect.

ESSENTIAL PRACTICE

In gen- eral, you will be evaluated on your knowledge and skills in the areas of arithmetic, elementary algebra, geometry, and measurement. (Adaptive computer tests adjust your test’s difficulty level as you take it.) Your test may be timed, in which case you should expect it to be about half an hour long, but make sure you check all the particulars with your school in advance. Specifically, you should ask for the test format, time constraints, subject matter being assessed, and if you may bring a calculator.

This way you will know which areas to study (and which ones to skip), and you will be prac- ticing under simulative testing conditions.

WITH MATH 4 4

If you have trouble with any of the Skill Builder questions, go back to the sam- ple questions and make sure that you really understand the individual topics. To recap, the game plan is: review (sample ques- tions), practice and assess (Skill Builder), and go back (rereview topics as necessary). To solve this question, we will use the Pythagorean the- orem,a2b2c2, where aand brepresent 2 legs of the right triangle, and crepresents the hypotenuse of the right triangle.

We know that these 2 triangles are similar because they both have right angles, and the angles marked below are equal as well.

SAMPGEO_4

Look- ing at the diagram, we see that the base is 8 and the height is 4. The hypotenuseis the longest side of a right triangle and it is always opposite the 90° angle (the right angle). In order to figure out the proportion, you just look at the sides opposite the equal angles.

SAMPGEO_5

SAMPGEO_6

SAMPGEO_7 SAMPGEO_8

SAMPGEO_7

SAMPGEO_8SAMPGEO_4

SAMPGEO_8

The top triangle has a side of 7, and the bottom triangle has a side of 14, so we know that the sides of the bottom triangle are double the sides of the top triangle. (Sure, the original question didn’t have a 1 there, but xis the same as 1x, isn’t it?) Because there is no coefficient for the x2term, the 1 coefficient of the x terms tells us the sum of the two numbers that are going to get stuck in parentheses will be 1. Because the coefficient of the x2term is 1, we know that the sum of the two missing numbers is 6 (the coeffi- cient of the xterm) and the product of the two miss- ing numbers is 16 (the lone number).

Again, because the coefficient of the x2term is 1, we know that the sum of the two missing numbers is 8 (the coefficient of the xterm) and the product of the two missing numbers is 9 (the lone number).

ANSWERS

It is cbecause 93,25 5 and 648, and 3 5 8.Hint: Regarding answer a, you can also remember that square roots can be multiplied or divided, but not added or subtracted. Because the coeffi- cient on the x2is 1, we know the missing num- bers add to 0 (because there is no x term the coefficient ofxis 0) and multiply to 49 (the lone number is 49). Because the coeffi- cient on the x2is 1, we know the missing num- bers add to 2 (because the coefficient ofxis 2) and multiply to 15 (the lone number is 15).

Because the coefficient on the x2is not 1, focus your attention on the lone number,2, which indicates that the numbers you will stick in the parentheses have a product of2.

PRACTICE TESTS IN GRAMMAR, WRITING,

As you complete the sections, you should be able to find your strengths and weaknesses.

P RACTICE G RAMMAR T EST

(2) Although it never did explain why censure was better than impeachment; in fact, the editorial gave many reasons why censure was good; but it never addressed why impeachment was bad. (3) One can only assume that if censure was preferable one reason had to be because impeachment would have seriously harmed the reputation of the United States abroad; weakening our position as a world leader. (5) What everyone should have been more concerned with was that the actions of the former president landed many of his friends and colleagues in court or in jail; costing them millions in legal fees.

(7) What the New York Timesshould have called for was that the president and his wife would have been held responsible for all legal costs incurred by anyone brought to court because of their actions; with no limit set on the dollar amount.

P RACTICE W RITING T EST

(8) As it is, the former president walked out of office unscathed; the first lady was elected to the Senate!.

T EST

The circulation of atmosphere—now threatened by global warming, the hole in the ozone layer, and pollution—protects the biosphere and makes life on Earth possible. The circulation of atmosphere is the sin- gle most important factor in keeping the biosphere alive, and it is constantly threat- ened by harmful human activity. (1)For perhaps the tenth time since the clock struck two, Sylvia crosses to the front-facing window of her apartment, pulls back the blue curtain and looks down the street.

(2)She walks back to the center of the high- ceilinged living room, where she stands frowning and twisting a silver bracelet around and around on her wrist.

A NSWER K EY FOR P RACTICE T ESTS

    The sentence fragment is “With no guarantees that our energy crisis will have been helped in the process.” It must be connected to the sentence that comes before or after it, or it has to be made into a sentence. The biosphere, as defined in the first para- graph, is a region(or part) of the Earth; it is not the envelope around the Earth, the living things on Earth, or the circulation of the atmosphere (choices a, c, d). In a sense, enabling the Earth to sustain life is invigorating; however, choice ais a better choice because the first two sen- tences talk about how the atmosphere protects the Earth from harmful forces.

    There is no hint in the story segment that Sylvia feels anything about her boss, nor is there anything in this scene to remind us of the actual killing of the birds in the museum (choices cand d).

    PRACTICE TESTS IN ARITHMETIC, ALGEBRA,

    You can use this practice test to help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and see where you might need some more practice to get your math skills in shape for college.

    AND GEOMETRY 6 6

    P RACTICE A RITHMETIC T EST

    How much bigger is the average male Proboscis monkey than the average male Douc langer?.

    P RACTICE A LGEBRA AND G EOMETRY T EST

    If a 10 ft ladder is leaning against a building as shown in the diagram below, how many feet above the ground,h, is the top of the ladder?. In order to factor the original expression, first note what the two terms have in common: You can pull out a 2, a p, and a q2. Next, you need to pick out two numbers that add to 3 (the coefficient ofx) and mul- tiply to 28 (the last term).

    When you compare the two volumes, you see that you multiply the old volume (8) by eight to get the new volume (64).