Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the “Submit my answers” button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

Jargon is a type of language used by academics that is designed to do what?
a) Impress the reader with fancy diction
b) Provide experts and other professionals with a way to exchange complex information
c) Make it difficult for non-experts to understand what’s being discussed
d) Both A and C

Question 2:

Citation of sources is important in academic writing because it tells us what?
a) That a writer has been honest in acknowledging the work of other researchers
b) Where other sources on the same topic can be found
c) That evidence for supporting claims can be tracked down and verified
d) All of the above

Question 3:

Statistics, diaries, surveys, letters, novels, speeches, newspaper reports, field notes, questionnaires, data from experimentation, and autobiographies are all examples of what kind of source?
a) Primary source
b) Secondary source
c) Invalid source
d) All of the above

Question 4:

Which of the following titles would you expect to find in a journal?
a) “Defining the ‘American Indian’: A Case Study in the Language of Suppression”
b) “Instructor-Paced Mass-Testing for Mastery Performance in an Introductory Psychology Course”
c) “Reforms, Visions, and Standards: A Cross-Curricular View from an Elementary School Perspective”
d) All of the above

Question 5:

Academic articles in the sciences and social sciences often begin with an abstract. What is the function of that abstract?
a) To introduce the essay
b) To provide a concise overview of the essay, including purpose, methods, and results
c) To conclude the essay
d) To support the thesis

Question 6:

In academic introductions, a literature review serves what purpose?
a) To summarize previous studies in the field
b) To demonstrate the writer’s knowledge of current research
c) To reveal gaps or misunderstandings in existing knowledge
d) All of the above

Question 7:

In academic introductions, to what does the term “justification” refer?
a) A style of margin
b) An explanation of why an author’s study is important or beneficial
c) An argument’s supporting points
d) None of the above

Question 8:

What does an introductory essay plan do?
a) It maps out the areas to be explored in the essay in the order they will appear.
b) It anticipates the author’s conclusions.
c) It creates a timeline for the author to meet her deadlines.
d) All of the above

Question 9:

In academic writing, the thesis can take what form?
a) An hypothesis, or prediction of an experiement’s results
b) Questions the author will answer in the essay
c) An essay plan, or statement of intent
d) All of the above

Question 10:

In the following introduction to a research essay exploring young girls’ use of violence, is the author presenting a literature review, a justification, a thesis, an essay plan, a hypothesis, or some combination of these?

Prior to the 1970’s most theorists and researchers treated girls and young women as incidental to the study of violence, crime, and delinquency (Artz, 1988; Berger, 1989; Chesney-Lind and Sheldon, 1980). For the most part, crime and delinquency, and especially violence, were considered masculine forms of behaviour, and females who did participate were deemed aberrant. As Deborah Blum (1998) noted in her book, Sex on the Brain, at a 1995 conference on crime and genetics, when scientists [geneticists] were asked how much energy went into figuring out male versus female aggression, their reply was that the difference was so accepted, such a given, that it “really didn’t make for interesting research” (p. xiv, brackets added). (Sibylle Artz, “To Die For: Violent Adolescent Girls’ Search for Male Attention,” 2004)
a) Literature review
b) Justification
c) Thesis
d) Answers A and B

Question 11:

In the following introduction to a study into alluvial aquifers, what is the author presenting?

In this report, I apply several statistical tests to Bedinger’s data in order to test whether grain size is a good predictor of the aquifer’s yield. (T. Miles, “Predicting the Yield of an Alluvial Aquifer,” 2004)
a) Literature review
b) Justification
c) Essay plan
d) Hypothesis

Question 12:

The use of which of the following is a characteristic of academic writing?
a) Big words
b) Computers
c) Specialized diction, or jargon
d) All of the above

Question 13:

Which of the following is NOT an academic documentation method?
a) CTA
b) APA
c) MLA
d) CSE

Question 14:

Which of the following sentences is written in the passive voice?
a) The scientist manipulated the data.
b) The scientist tried to hide his manipulation of data.
c) The data was manipulated by the scientist.
d) He manipulated the data.

Question 15:

What of the following is true about objectivity in scientific writing?
a) It assures data are treated without bias.
b) It can be conveyed through the use of the active voice.
c) It is impossible to achieve.
d) None of the above

Question 16:

Which of the following is an example of a common academic report heading?
a) middle section
b) word count
c) methods
d) All of the above

Higher Education

The Active Reader, Third Edition: Chapter 2