To review chapter content related to each set of exercises, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.
Revising Messages: Clarity Break the following sentences into shorter ones; revise as necessary to maintain sense and smooth flow.
1. The next time you write something, check your average sentence length in a 100-word passage, and if your sentences average more than 16 to 20 words, see whether you can break up some of the sentences.
2. Don't do what the village blacksmith did when he instructed his apprentice as follows: "When I take the shoe out of the fire, I'll lay it on the anvil, and when
I nod my head, you hit it with the hammer." The apprentice did just as he was told, and now he's the village blacksmith.
3. Unfortunately, no gadget will produce excellent writing, but using spell checkers and grammar checkers can help by catching common spelling errors and raising grammatical points that writers might want to reconsider, such as suspect sentence structure and problems with noun-verb agreement.
4. Know the flexibility of the written word and its power to convey an idea, and know how to make your words behave so that your readers will understand.
Revising Messages: Conciseness Eliminate unnecessary words in the following sentences.
5. The board cannot act without a consensus of opinion.
6. To surpass our competitors, we need new innovations both in products and in company operations.
7. George McClannahan has wanted to be head of engineering a long period of time, and now he has finally gotten the promotion.
8. Don't pay more than you have to; you can get our new fragrance for a price of just $50.
Revising Messages: Conciseness Revise the following sentences, using shorter, simpler words.
9. The antiquated calculator is ineffectual for solving sophisticated problems.
10. It is imperative that the pay increments be terminated before an inordinate deficit is accumulated.
11. There was unanimity among the executives that Ms.
Jackson's idiosyncrasies were cause for a mandatory meeting with the company's personnel director.
12. The impending liquidation of the company's assets was cause for jubilation among the company's competitors. Revising Messages: Conciseness Use infinitives as substitutes for the overly long phrases in the following sentences.
13. For living, I require money.
14. They did not find sufficient evidence for believing in the future.
15. Bringing about the destruction of a dream is tragic. Revising Messages: Conciseness Condense the following sentences to as few words as possible; revise as needed to maintain clarity and sense.
16. We are of the conviction that writing is important.
17. In all probability, we're likely to have a price increase.
18. Our goals include making a determination about that in the near future.
19. When all is said and done at the conclusion of this experiment, I'd like to summarize the final windup.
Revising Messages: Modifiers Remove all the unnecessary modifiers from the following sentences.
20. Tremendously high pay increases were given to the extraordinarily skilled and extremely conscientious employees.
21. The union's proposals were highly inflationary, extremely demanding, and exceptionally bold.
Revising Messages: Hedging Rewrite the following sentences so that they no longer contain any hedging.
22. It would appear that someone apparently entered illegally.
23. It may be possible that sometime in the near future the situation is likely to improve.
24. Your report seems to suggest that we might be losing money.
25. I believe Nancy apparently has somewhat greater influence over employees in the new-accounts department.
Revising Messages: Indefinite Starters Rewrite the following sentences to eliminate the indefinite starters (forms of There are or It is).
26. There are several examples here to show that Elaine can't hold a position very long.
27. It would be greatly appreciated if every employee would make a generous contribution to Mildred Cook's retirement party.
28. It has been learned in Washington today from generally reliable sources that an important announcement will be made shortly by the White House.
29. There is a rule that states that we cannot work overtime without permission.
Revising Messages:Parallelism Revise the following sentences to fix the parallelism problems.
30. Mr. Hill is expected to lecture three days a week, to counsel two days a week, and must write for publication in his spare time.
31. She knows not only accounting, but she also reads Latin.
32. Both applicants had families, college degrees, and were in their thirties, with considerable accounting experience but few social connections.
33. This book was exciting, well written, and held my interest.
Revising Messages: Awkward References Revise the following sentences to delete the awkward references.
34. The vice president in charge of sales and the production manager are responsible for funding the demo unit program and the loaner unit program, respectively.
35. The demo unit program and the loaner unit program are funded from different budgets, with the former the responsibility of the vice president in charge of sales and the latter the re|sponsibility of the production manager.
36. The budgets for the demo unit program and the loaner unit program were increased this year, with the aforementioned budgets being increased 10 percent in both cases.
37. A laser printer and an inkjet printer were delivered to John and Megan, respectively.
Revising Messages: Dangling Modifiers Rewrite the following sentences to clarify the dangling modifiers.
38. Running down the railroad tracks in a cloud of smoke, we watched the countryside glide by.
39. Lying on the shelf, Ruby saw the seashell.
40. In need of a major equipment upgrade, I think the factory would be a bad investment.
41. Being cluttered and filthy, Sandy took the whole afternoon to clean up her desk.
Revising Messages: Noun Sequences Rewrite the following sentences to eliminate the long strings of nouns.
42. The focus of the meeting was a discussion of the bank interest rate deregulation issue.
43. Following the government task force report recommendations, we are revising our job applicant evaluation procedures.
44. The production department quality assurance program components include employee training, supplier cooperation, and computerized detection equipment.
45. The supermarket warehouse inventory reduction plan will be implemented next month.
Revising Messages: Sentence Structure Rearrange each of the following sentences to bring the subjects closer to their verbs.
46. Trudy, when she first saw the bull pawing the ground, ran.
47. It was Terri who, according to Ted, who is probably the worst gossip in the office (Tom excepted), mailed the wrong order.
48. William Oberstreet, in his book Investment Capital Reconsidered, writes of the mistakes that bankers through the decades have made.
49. Judy Schimmel, after passing up several sensible investment opportunities, despite the warnings of her friends and family, invested her inheritance in a jojoba plantation. Revising Messages: Camouflaged Verbs Rewrite each of the following sentences so that the verbs are no longer camouflaged.
50. Adaptation to the new rules was performed easily by the employees.
51. The assessor will make a determination of the tax due.
52. Verification of the identity of the employees must be made daily.
53. The board of directors made a recommendation that Mr. Ronson be assigned to a new division.