Advanced Practice

Click to download a PDF of these practice activities. Click to download a PDF of the answer key.

First, for each sentence, select all the to be verbs; some sentences have more than one. Second, in some of the sentences, unnecessary to be verb constructions cause confusion. If the sentence is confusing and the to be verb should be cut, revise it in the textbox to clarify the idea without losing meaning. Are there any to be verbs that must remain? If so, explain in the textbox why the to be verb(s) is/are necessary. 

Please note, because revising to be verbs deals with style more than grammar rules, there may be multiple revision options although you will see only one option after you submit each response. Compare your revision to the answer and determine if one is more effective. One way to do that is to determine which revision has fewer words but still maintains the original sentence's meaning. 

You must respond to each question before the AGG response will be displayed. After you submit each response, you will see the AGG response, but you won’t be able to see your response until the end. After the quiz, you will be able to review the summary of responses including the original sentence, your own response and the AGG revision. This quiz has 8 questions.

Example: Mobile phones are key products to make the system succeed because they are easily handled by most people even people who did not receive sufficient education.

Possible revision: Mobile phones increase the system’s success because most people can easily use them.

Example: The purpose of this section is to explain the how (what they will use), why (reasons for creating the product), who (the population), and where (the location). 

Necessary to be verb: We could not revise this sentence to cut the to be verb without cutting the word "purpose" which is an academic term necessary to maintain the writer's idea.

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