Exercises from Williams’ 9th Edition
Exercise 3.1
Analyze the subject/character and verb/action patterns in these sentences.
There is opposition among voters to nuclear power plants based on a belief of their threat to human health.
Many voters oppose nuclear power plants because they believe that such plants threaten human health.
Exercise 3.2 If you aren’t sure whether you can distinguish verbs, adjectives, and nominalizations, turn these verbs and adjectives into nominalizations, and the nominalizations into adjectives and verbs. Remember that some verbs and nominalizations have the same form:
Poverty predictably CAUSES social problems
Poverty IS a predictable CAUSE of social problems.
Analysis / Believe / Attempt / Conclusion / EvaluateSuggest / Approach / Comparison / Define / Discuss
Expression / Failure / Intelligent / Thorough / Appearance
Decrease / Improve / Increase / Accuracy / Careful
Emphasize / Explanation / Description / Clear / Examine
Exercise 3.4
One sentence in each of these pairs is clear, expressing characters as subjects and actions as verbs; the other is indirect, with actions in nominalizations and characters often not in subjects. First, identify which is which. Then circle nominalizations and highlight verbs. If you are good at grammar, underline subjects. Then put a “c” over characters that seem to perform actions.
2a. Smoking during pregnancy may cause fetal injury.
2b. When we write concisely, readers understand easily.
4a. Complaints by editorial writers about voter apathy rarely offer suggestions about dispelling it.
4b. Although critics claim that children who watch a lot of television tend to become less able readers, no one has demonstrated that to be true.
Exercise 3.4 cont.
6a. We need to know which parts of our national forests are being logged most extensively so that we can save virgin strands at greatest risk.
6b. There is a need for an analysis of library use to provide a reliable base for the projection of needed resources.
Exercise 3.6 Revise these next sentences so that the nominalizations are verbs and characters are their subjects. In (1) through (5), characters are italicized and nominalizations are boldfaced.
2. Attempts were made on the part of the president's aides to assert his immunity from a Congressional subpoena.
4. Your analysis of my report omits any data in support of your criticism of my findings.
Exercise 3.6 cont.
In sentences 6 through 10, the agents are italicized; find the actions and revise.
6. A papal appeal was made to the world’s rich nations for assistance to those facing the threat of African starvation.
8. The agreement by the class on the reading list was on the assumption that there would be tests on only certain selections.
10. An understanding as to the need for controls over drinking on campus was recognized by fraternities.
Exercise 3.6 cont.
In 11 through 15, only the nominalizations are boldfaced; find or invent the characters and revise.
12. Physical conditioning of the team is the responsibility of the coaching staff.
14. The Dean’s rejection of our proposal was a disappointment but not a surprise because our expectation was that a decision had been made.
Exercise 3.7 Revise these sentences. At the end of each is a hint.
For example:
Congress’s reduction of the deficit resulted in the decline of interest rates. [because]
a Interest rates DECLINED because Congress REDUCED the deficit.
2. Precision in plotting the location of building foundations enhances the possibility of its accurate reconstruction. [When we precisely plot…]
4. A student's lack of socialization into a field may lead to writing problems because of his insufficient understanding about arguments by professionals in that field.
[When...... , because.]
Exercise 4.1
Before you revise these next sentences, diagnose them. Look at the first six of seven words (ignore short introductory phrases). Then revise so that each has a specific character as a subject of a specific verb. To revise you may have to invent characters. Use we, I, or any other word that seems appropriate.
2. Decisions about forcibly administering medication in an emergency room setting despite the inability of an irrational patient to provide legal consent is usually an on-scene medical decision.
4. Resistance has been growing against building mental health facilities in residential areas because of a belief that the few examples of improper management are typical.
Exercise 4.2
In the following, change all active verbs into passives, and all passives into actives. Which sentences improve? Which do not? (In the first two, active verbs that could be passive are italicized; verbs already passive are boldfaced).
2. Different planes of the painting are noticed, because their colors are set against a background of shades of gray that are laid on in layers that cannot be seen unless the surface is examined closely.
4. Science education will not be improved in this nation to a level sufficient to ensure that American industry will be supplied with skilled workers and researchers until more money is provided to primary and secondary schools.
Exercise 4.3
The verbs in 1 through 4 below are passive, but two could be active because they are metadiscourse verbs that would take first-person subjects. Revise the passive verbs that should be changed into active verbs. Then go through each sentence again and revise nominalizations into verbs where appropriate.
2. The model has been subjected to extensive statistical analysis.
4. The creation of a database is being considered, but no estimate has been made in regard to the potential of its usefulness.
Exercise 4.3 cont.
The verbs in 5 through 8 are active, but some of them should be passive because they are not metadiscourse verbs. Revise in other ways that seem appropriate.
6. Our intention in this book is to help readers achieve an understanding not only of the differences in grammar between Arabic and English but also the differences in worldview as reflected by Arabic vocabulary.
8. We performed the tissue rejection study on the basis of methods developed with our discovery of increases in dermal sloughing as a result of cellular regeneration.
Exercise 4.4
In these sentences, change passive verbs into actives only where you think it will improve the sentence. If necessary, invent a rhetorical situation to account for your choice of active or passive. (Different answers are correct for this one.)
2. Home mortgage loans now are made for thirty years. With the price of housing at inflated levels, those loans cannot be paid off in a shorter time.
4. Many arguments were advanced against Darwinian evolution in the nineteenth century because basic assumptions about our place in the world were challenged by it. No longer were humans defined as privileged creatures but rather as a product of natural forces.
Exercise 4.4 cont.
In these sentences, change passives to active where appropriate and change nominalizations into verbs. Invent characters where necessary.
6. It is my belief that the social significance of smoking receives its clearest explication through an analysis of peer interaction among adolescents. In particular, studies should be made of the manner in which interactive behavior is conditioned by social class.
8. The ability of the human brain to arrive at solutions of human problems has been undervalued because studies have not been done that would be considered to have scientific reliability.
Exercise 4.5
The excerpt below is from an actual letter from the chancelor of a state university to parents and students. Except for the second word, you, why is the first part so impersonal? Why is the last part more personal? Change the first part so that you name in subjects whoever performs an action. Then change the second part to eliminate all characters. How do the two parts now differ? Have you improved the letter? This exercise raises the question of deliberate misdirection, an issue we’ll cover in Lesson 12.
As you have probably heard, the U of X campus has been the scene of a number of incidents of racial and sexual harassment over the last several weeks. The fact that similar incidents have occurred on campuses around the country does not make them any less offensive when they take place here. Of the ten to twelve incidents that have been reported since early October, most have involved graffiti or spoken insults. In only two cases was any physical contact made, and in neither case was anyone injured.
U of X is committed to providing its students with an environment where they can live, work, and study without fear or being taunted or harassed because of their race, gender, religion, or ethnicity. I have made it clear that bigotry and intolerance will not be permitted and the U of X's commitment to diversity is unequivocal. We are also taking steps to improve security in campus housing. We at U of X are proud of this university's tradition of diversity. . . .
Exercise 4.6
Revise the compound noun phrases in 1 through 4.
2. Diabetic patient blood pressure reduction may be brought about by renal depressor medication.
4. On the basis of these principles, we may now attempt to formulate narrative information extraction rules.
Exercise 4.6 cont.
In these, unpack compound nouns and revise nominalizations.
6. Enforcement of guidelines for new automobile tire durability must be a Federal Trade Commission responsibility.
8. Based on training needs assessment reviews and on office site visits, there was the identification of concepts and issues that can be used in our creation of an initial staff questionnaire instrument.
Exercise 8.1
These sentences have long introductory phrases and clauses. Revise. Try to open you revised sentence with its point.
2. While grade inflation has been a subject of debate by teachers and administrators and even in newspapers, employers looking for people with high levels of technical and analytical skills have not had difficulty identifying desirable candidates.
4. Since school officials responsible for setting policy about school security have said that local principals may require students to pass through metal detectors before entering a school building, the need to educate parents and students about the seriousness of bringing onto school property anything that looks like a weapon must be made a part of the total package of school security.
Exercise 8.1 cont.
These sentences have long subjects. Revise.
6. Explaining why Shakespeare decided to have Lady Macbeth die off stage rather than letting the audience see her die has to do with understanding the audience's reactions to Macbeth's death.
8. A student's right to have access to his or her own records, including medical records, academic reports, and confidential comments by advisers, will generally take precedence over an institution's desire to keep those records private, except when limitations of those rights under specified circumstances were agreed to by students during registration.
Exercise 8.1 cont.
These sentences are interrupted. First, eliminate wordiness, then correct the interruption.
10. Such prejudicial conduct or behavior, regardless of the reasons offered to justify it, is rarely not at least to some degree prejudicial to good order and discipline.
12. Insistence that there is no proof by scientific means of a causal link between tobacco consumption and various disease entities such as cardiac heart diseases and malignant growth, despite the fact that there is a strong statistical correlation between smoking behavior and such diseases, is no longer the officially stated position of cigarette companies.
Exercise 8.2
In these sentences, create resumptive, summative, and free modifiers. In the first five, start a resumptive modifier with the word in boldface. Then use the word in brackets to create another sentence with a summative modifier. For example:
Within ten years, we could meet our energy needs with solar power. [a possibility]
Resumptive:
a Within ten years we could meet our energy needs with solar power, needs that will soar as our population grows.
Summative:
a Within ten years we could meet our energy needs with solar power, a possibility that few anticipated ten years ago.
Free:
a Within ten years we could meet our energy needs with solar power, freeing ourselves of dependence on foreign oil.
But before you begin adding resumptive and summative modifiers, edit these sentences for redundancy, wordiness, nominalizations, and other problems.
2. Within the period of the last few years or so, automobile manufacturers have been trying to meet new and more stringent-type quality control requirements. [a challenge]
Exercise 8.2 cont.
4. The majority of young people in the world of today cannot even begin to have an understanding of the insecurity that a large number of older people had experienced during the period of the Great Depression. [a failure]
6. Many who lived during the period of the Victorian era were appalled when Darwin put forth the suggestion that their ancestry might have included creatures related to apes.
Exercise 8.2 cont.
8. The field of journalism has to an increasing degree placed its focus on the kind of news stories and events that at one time in our history were considered to be only gossip of a salacious and sexual nature.
Exercise 7.1
Prune the redundancy from these sentences.
2. Scientific research generally depends on fully accurate data if it is to offer theories that will allow us to predict the future in a plausible way.
4. Notwithstanding the fact that all legal restrictions on the use of firearms are the subject of heated debate and argument, it is necessary that the general public not stop carrying on discussions pro and con in regard to them.
Exercise 7.1 cont.
Where appropriate, change the following negatives to affirmatives, and do any more editing you think if useful.
6. Except when expenses do not exceed $250, the Insured may not refuse to provide the Insurer with receipts, checks, or other evidence of costs.
8. Do not discontinue medication unless symptoms of dizziness and nausea are not present for six hours.
Exercise 7.1 cont.
10. No agreement exists on the question of an open or closed universe, a dispute about which no resolution is likely as long as a computation of the total mass of the universe has not been done.
12. No alternative exists in this country to the eventual development of tar sand, oil shale, and coal as sources of fuel, if we wish to stop being energy dependent on imported oil.