AHSGE Test Vocabulary Dr. Patrick Cain SEHS Assistant Principal Elmore County Schools
Language
Mrs. Julie Turner School Improvement Specialist Dothan City Schools
Vivid Details Details that appeal to the senses and help the reader see, feel, smell, taste, and hear the subject being written about.
Vivid Verbs
Whenever possible, use a verb that is strong enough to stand alone without the help of an adverb.
Avoid overusing the “be” verbs.
Use active rather than passive verbs.
Use verbs that show rather than tell.
Clarity Writing in a manner in which the reader understands the basic meaning.
Verbal A verbal is a form of a verb that works in a sentence as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.
Indefinite Pronoun An indefinite pronoun refers to persons, places or things in a more general way. Indefinite pronouns do not have clear antecedents.
Reflexive Pronoun A reflexive pronoun refers to a noun or another pronoun and indicates that the same person or thing is involved. Example: I almost exhausted myself working for her in the campaign.
Antecedent The word or group of words that a pronoun replaces is called its antecedent.
Active Voice An action verb is in the active voice when the subject of the sentence performs the action.
Passive Voice An action verb is in the passive voice when its action is performed on the subject.
Regular Verbs Most verbs are regular verbs. If the past tense and past participle of a verb both end in –ed it is called a regular verb.
Irregular Verbs An irregular verb is a verb that does not form its past and past participle by adding –ed to the basic verb.
Collective Noun A collective noun names a group of people or things. Examples:
Appositive An appositive is a noun or pronoun (sometimes with modifiers) that is placed next to another noun or pronoun to identify it or to give additional information about it.
Misplaced Participle A misplaced participle modifies the wrong noun or pronoun in a sentence.
Clichés A cliché is an overused word or phrase that springs quickly to mind but just as quickly bores the user and audience. Examples: as cold as ice a fish out of water
Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative Conjunctions compare or contrast two ideas in a sentence. Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs (either, or; neither, nor; not only, but also; both, and; whether, or; as, so).
Jargon Jargon is language used in a certain profession or by a particular group of people. It is usually very technical and not natural at all.
Redundancy Redundancy occurs when words (or synonyms for words) are repeated unnecessarily to add emphasis or to fill up space.
Formal Language Most academic writing should meet the standards of formal language. This level of language is characterized by a serious tone, a careful attention to word choice, longer sentences, a strict adherence to traditional conventions and so on.
Informal Language Informal English is characterized by a personal tone, the occasional use of popular expressions, shorter sentences, the use of contractions and personal references.
Comma Splice A comma splice is a mistake made when two independent clauses are connected (spliced) with only a comma.
Parallelism This means that similar ideas are expressed in similar form, which makes it easier for the reader to recognize the similar ideas you are trying to express.
Transitional Words Transitional words are often used to introduce related topics. Examples: First, second, third, to illustrate, for instance, also, in addition
Sentence Structure Sentences are classified by structure in one of four ways: simple, compound, complex, and compoundcomplex sentences.
Dangling Modifier A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause that comes at the beginning of a sentence but does not modify (describe) the subject in the sentence.
Modifiers Modifiers are adjectives.
Intervening Phrase A phrase that interrupts a sentence.
Irrelevant Sentences A sentence that does not belong in a paragraph.
Verb Shifts Shifts in verb tense within a passage.
Verbiage Wordiness
Precise Definite; exact
