Preparing for theTest of Essential

Academic Skills/TEASA Presentation by the

Georgia Perimeter College Learning and Tutoring Centers

TEAS Overview O Consists of 170 questions

O 150 questions scoredO 20 questions experimental (unscored)

O Covers the following topics:O Math (34 questions)O Science (54 questions)O Reading (48 questions) O English and Language Usage (34

questions)

TEAS English and Language Usage Sub-skills

O Parts of Speech

O Pronouns and Antecedents

O Subject-Verb Agreement

O Verb Tense

O Passive vs. Active Voice

O Mechanics O SpellingO PunctuationO Capitalization

O Sentence Types/Sentence Structure

O Voice/Point of View

Parts of Speech O Nouns/Pronouns

O Verbs

O Adjectives

O Adverbs

O Conjunctions

O Prepositions

Nouns and Pronouns

O NOUNS are words that name people, places, ideas, qualities, measures

O COMMON NOUNS name a general person, place, thing or idea

O PROPER NOUNS name a specific person, place, thing or idea

O Nouns are either COUNTABLE or NON-COUNTABLE

O PRONOUNS are words that rename or take the place of nouns, e.g. he, she, it, they, us and we

Pronouns and Antecedents Be sure that the pronoun agrees with (matches) the antecedent in number.

The dog chased i ts tai l . The dogs chased their ta i ls .

Treat COLLECTIVE nouns that name a group (e.g. team, jury, class, committee) like a singular noun and make the pronoun agree.

The family takes its big vacation in July.

Find the common and proper nouns. I moved here from San Diego five years ago.

The water of the Dead Sea is said to have medicinal properties.

Do the pronoun and antecedents match? The band wore their new uniform at the Homecoming football game.

Verbs O VERBS tell:

O action occurring OR

O state of being

O When verbs tell the state of being of a noun, they are called LINKING VERBS.

Ex. Mrs. Siegel was the best teacher I’d ever had.

O VERBS can sometimes use helping or auxiliary verbs to complete their meaning.

Ex. The reggae band Third World will be performing at the Rialto.

O Do not confuse GERUNDS and verbs. A GERUND is a word formed from a verb but that is used as a noun. It always ends with “-ing.”

Ex. He enjoys swimming at the Y. verb gerund

That’s what’s happening!

Verb Tenses [Verb] tenses…are marked by words called auxiliaries. Understanding the SIX BASIC TENSES allows one to re-create much of the reality of time. ~Purdue Online Writing Lab

Judy saved thirty dollars. (Past)

Judy will save thirty dollars. (Future)

Judy has saved thirty dollars. (Present Perfect)

Judy had saved thirty dollars by the end of last month. (Past Perfect)

Judy will have saved thirty dollars by the end of this month. (Future Perfect)

Subject-Verb AgreementPlural nouns should be matched with plural verbs; singular nouns should be matched with singular verbs. In the following sentences, the subjects and verbs do not agree.

Incorrect: Maria and her friend is going to the store.Plural Subject: Maria and her friendCorrect: Maria and her friend are going to the store.

Incorrect: One of the cereal boxes are open.Singular Subject: One Correct: One of the cereal boxes is open.

Incorrect: Either are fine.Singular Subject: EitherCorrect: Either is fine.

From Purdue OWL

Find the verbs and name their tenses.

Cooking is one of Ben’s many talents.

My parents told me that their plane will be arriving at noon.

Are the subjects and verbs correctly matched?

One of the test tubes is about to spill their contents.

It’s either Kristin or Blake who likes Lucky Charms cereal.

The members of the family takes turns leading the holiday prayer.

Adjectives and Adverbs O ADJECTIVES modify (tell more about) nouns

O Adjectives often appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify.

O Adjectives usually tell:O What kind He likes chocolate ice cream.O Which Stop that train.O How many She ordered three pairs of shoes.

O ADVERBS modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They often (but not always) end in “-ly” and tell:O How The sun rises faithfully every morning. O Where His GPS told him to drive east on Elm Street.O How oftenLori rarely eats takeout.

Adjective or Adverb?

Don’t speak so quickly because I can’t understand you.

Damon is not only intelligent but also extremely kind.

Prepositions PREPOSITIONS describe relationships between words in a sentence.

PREPOSITIONS often indicate time or location. They are nearly always combined with articles and nouns in structures called prepositional phrases.

The noun within a prepositional phrase is called the OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION. Generally, it is not the subject of the sentence.

She stacked the pancakes on the platter and brought them

to the table.

subj.

Preposition Article

Object of the

Preposition

on the border

under the bed

over the moon

A Complete List of Prepositions

aboutabove

according toacrossafter

againstalong

along withamong

apart fromaround

asas for

atbecause of

beforebehindbelow

beneathbeside

betweenbeyond

but*by

by means of

concerningdespitedownduringexcept

except forexcepting

forfrom

inin addition to

in back ofin case ofin front ofin place of

insidein spite ofinstead of

intolikenearnextofoffon

ontoon top of

outout of

outsideoverpast

regardingroundsince

throughthroughout

tillto

towardunder

underneathunlikeuntilup

uponup towith

withinwithout

Conjunctions

O CONJUNCTIONS are used as connectors. They link words, phrases and clauses together.

O Conjunctions are often referred to as FANBOYS because the words that carry out this function are:

for, and, not, but, or, yet, so

O Remember to put a comma before a COORDINATING CONJUNCTION because it signals that you are separating two sentences

Ex. Remember to put a comma before a coordinating conjunction, for it signals that you are separating two sentences.

Conjunctions Continued Use conjunctions to:

O Connect two main clauses

When you connect two main clauses with a coordinating conjunction, use a comma.

The pattern looks like this:

main clause + comma + main clause.

Ex. When I’m at work, my dog Floyd sleeps on the bed, and my cat Buster naps in the bathtub.

From Grammar Bytes.com

+ coordinating conjunction

Conjunctions ContinuedO Connect two items in a list:

These items can be any grammatical unit EXCEPT main clauses.

The pattern looks like this:

item + coordinating conjunction + item

Here are some examples:

My dog Floyd has too many fleas and too much hair.

My cat Buster has beautiful gray eyes but a destructive personality.

Active VoiceActive voice means placing the person or thing doing the action in the nominative part (the part that comes before the verb) of the sentence.

I turned on the light.

Passive voice puts the object being acted upon before the verb.

The light was turned on by me.

Punctuation: Does It Really Matter?Where a writer places punctuation does, indeed, matter.

Dear John : I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?

Yours, Jane

Dear John,

I want a man who knows what

love is all about. You are

generous, kind, thoughtful.

People who are not like you

admit to being useless and

inferior. You have ruined me for

other men. I yearn for you. I

have no feelings whatsoever

when we're apart. I can be

forever happy--will you let me

be yours? Jane

Punctuation Marks (And When to Use Them)

Period . Comma ,Shows ending of declarative sentence Separates clauses, items in lists and

follows salutation of informal letters

Class starts in ten minutes. It rained over the holiday, but I still enjoyed myself.

Question Mark ? Colon :

Shows ending of interrogative sentenceTo introduce a quotation, explanation, example, or series. Also often used after salutation of a business letter.

What time does the class start? Eduardo’s main reason for agreeing to relocate is this: he loves the Pacific Northwest.

Exclamation Point ! Semi-colon ;

Shows ending of declarative sentence Alternative to a period that shows a close relationship between clauses

I scored an “A” on my final exam! Red is her favorite color; she wears it often.

Punctuation Marks (And When to Use Them)Apostrophe ’ Hyphen -

Indicates contractions, possessive case, or plurals of lowercase letters.

Used to make compound words, join prefixes to other words, show word breaks

The bird’s wings are as wide as a kite. The props were all camera-ready. Dash -- Quotation Marks “ ”

To insert supplementary commentary while emphasizing its importance or create emphasis

Used to indicate the exact words taken from someone’s speech or written text

To feed, clothe, and find shelter for the needy--these are real achievements.

My grandmother used to say, “Cross that bridge when you get to it.”

Ellipses … Brackets [ ]

To indicate omission Used mainly for clarification within or modification of quoted material

Full statement: Today, after hours of careful thought, we vetoed the bill.With ellipsis: Today…we vetoed the bill.

Examples here: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingrules/qt/brackets.htm

Sentence TypesO Simple: One independent clause

I love music.

O Complex: One dependent and one independent clause

Since he knows how much I love music, Dad bought me a new MP3 player.

O Compound: Two independent clauses (remember to use a “fanboys”)

I love music, and my brother enjoys kung fu films.

O Compound-Complex: One dependent plus two (or multiple) independent clauses

To show Dad our thanks, my brother cut the lawn, and I washed the car.

Independent clause= a complete thought; contains subject, verb/predicate

Dependent clause= incomplete thought; missing either a subject or verb; relies on independent clause to complete meaning

Name the sentence type.

O As the TV newscaster reported the story of the tsunami, the room gradually fell silent.

O Mary and Samantha left on the bus before I arrived, so I didn’t see them at the bus station.

O When Lee handed in his project, he didn’t give the instructor the last page, so he got an incomplete.

O Dr. Ramirez helped me recover from a basketball injury.

Questions?

Presentation Content by Jené WatsonGeorgia Perimeter College (Decatur)

Learning and Tutoring Center September 2014

Capitol Community College

ESL Bee.com

Grammar Girl

Illinois Valley Community College

Purdue Online Writing Lab

The Punctuation Guide online

Towson University

Vappingo.com

The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison online

Sources