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Verb forms place actions in time — simple past/present/future, progressive (ongoing: was walking), and perfect (completed relative to another time: had walked) — and tense should stay consistent unless the meaning requires a shift.
Perfect tenses use forms of ‘have’ plus a past participle, and irregular participles are the trap: lie/lay/lain versus lay/laid/laid, and ‘had went’ is always wrong (had gone). The past perfect marks the earlier of two past events.
In active voice the subject performs the action (the nurse gave the medication); in passive voice the subject receives it (the medication was given by the nurse), built from a form of 'be' plus a past participle.
Identify passive by the ‘be + past participle’ frame, often with a ‘by’ phrase naming the real actor. Scientific writing tolerates passive voice to keep focus on the procedure rather than the researcher.
Choosing language to fit audience and purpose: formal writing avoids slang, contractions, and casual phrasing for academic and professional contexts; informal language suits personal notes and dialogue.
Formality is a spectrum, not a switch: jargon-heavy clinical language, plain professional prose, and slang each have a home. The skill the TEAS tests is judging which register the audience and purpose demand.
Words and phrases that connect ideas and signal their relationship: addition (furthermore), contrast (however), cause and effect (therefore), example (for instance), and sequence (finally).
When a conjunctive adverb like ‘however’ or ‘therefore’ joins two independent clauses, it needs a semicolon before it and a comma after. Transitions are the connective tissue that turns a list of sentences into an argument.
A well-built paragraph has one controlling idea in a topic sentence, supporting sentences that develop it with evidence and explanation, and unity — every sentence belongs to the same idea.
Coherence is order: arrange supporting sentences logically (time, importance, cause-effect) and link them with transitions. A concluding or bridging sentence ties the paragraph off or hands the reader to the next one.
The five stages of producing a piece of writing: prewriting (brainstorming and planning), drafting, revising (reworking ideas and organization), editing (fixing grammar and mechanics), and publishing.
The process is recursive — writers loop back to earlier stages as the piece develops. A thesis drafted in prewriting often gets sharpened during revision once the writer discovers what the draft actually argues.
A modifier must sit next to the word it describes: a misplaced modifier attaches to the wrong word ('she served cake to the children on paper plates'), and a dangling modifier describes a word missing from the sentence entirely.
Even single words wander: ‘only’ changes meaning with every position (‘only I tested him’ vs ‘I tested only him’). Place each modifier as close as possible to what it modifies and most ambiguity disappears.
Saying exactly what is meant in the fewest words that preserve the meaning — cutting redundancy (free gift, end result), filler (due to the fact that), and needless repetition.
Redundant pairs hide in plain sight: ‘each and every,’ ‘past history,’ ‘completely eliminate.’ Concise is not the same as short — a longer sentence that adds information beats a short one that loses it.