Reasoning Through Language Arts is the reading and writing half of the GED: passages to read closely, arguments to weigh, and one extended response to write. The quizzes for this page are the Talking Figures Series; its first run, the pages here so far, is the Talking Hands Series. Each one teaches a skill first, in plain words, then asks about it, and its key explains every answer, the right one and the tempting ones. Twenty quizzes are here now, with a map of the whole terrain and two interludes. More follow through the year.
Start with the map. The Map of the Terrain lists all fifty-nine topics in ten sections, in the order they are usually taught, and marks in yellow the ones that have a quiz. Read its word about order, then pick a trail below. Every quiz names the one to take next.
Every quiz has the same shape: a figure at the top (a hand, on the first run), the idea in plain words, a worked example that thinks out loud, Part A (the skill by itself), Part B (the skill in a real document, a notice or a memo or a résumé), and a key you open when you are done. Nothing is graded or stored. If you want a record, print the page when you finish; every page prints clean.
The reading trail
Comprehension first, then the writer's craft. Take them in order; each page stands on the one before it.
- 1Main Idea & Central Idea
the cupped hand · what the whole text is saying, stated or implied
- 2Supporting Details
the supporting hands · which facts carry the idea, and which only stand near it
- 3Summarizing
the folding hands · the text made small, true, and in your own words
- 4Inference
the listening hand · conclusions you can point to the sentences for
- 5Citing Evidence
the manicule · for this claim, that sentence
- 6Relationships Between Ideas
the interlaced hands · cause, contrast, sequence, and the joints with no signal word
- 7Vocabulary in Context
the gloved hand · reading which meaning a common word is using
- 8Connotation, Denotation & Tone
the shading hand · what a word points at, and what it carries
- 8AConnotation, Denotation & Tone, a second page
the weighing hands · the same skill with a different picture; take it after Quiz 8, or for more practice
- 9Figurative Language
the talking hand · a borrowed word, and what it lends
- 10Structure
the small hand and the large · how the whole piece is built, and why that shape
The language trail
Sentences and their parts, then the punctuation that follows from them. The order below is the order to take them: after Quiz 34 the trail jumps ahead to the marks those pages need, then bends back to Quiz 35 and continues from there.
- 31Clauses & Sentence Types
the open hand · the parts every later page is built from
- 32Fragments
the importuning hand · pieces posing as whole sentences
- 33Run-ons & Comma Splices
the colliding hands · whole sentences crammed together, and five ways to repair them
- 34Combining Sentences
the clasped hands · joining ideas with a word that tells the truth about how they relate
- 43Commas
the thimbled hand · the four jobs a comma does, and the one it never does
- 44Semicolons & Colons
the beckoning hand · the two stronger marks, each with one honest job
- 47Transitions
the passing hands · the words that tell a reader what kind of connection is coming
- 35Parallel Structure
the shaping hand · items in a row, built to one pattern
- 35AParallel Structure, a second page
the level hands · the same skill with a different picture; take it after Quiz 35, or for more practice
- 36Misplaced & Dangling Modifiers
the dangling hand · a description attached to the wrong thing, or to nothing at all
- 37Subject–Verb Agreement
the X-rayed hand · the verb matches its own subject, seen through the words in between
- 38Verb Tense
the hands of the clock · keeping one time, and moving it only for a reason the reader can see
- 39Pronoun–Antecedent Agreement
the counting hand · a pronoun counts the same as the word it stands for
- 40Pronoun Case & Unclear Reference
the indicating hand · I or me, we or us, and a pronoun that points at one person only
- 41Frequently Confused Words
the left hand and the right · words that sound alike and do different jobs, each with a test you can say
- 42Word Choice, Wordiness & Register
the working hand · the words the job needs, and no more, chosen for the reader
- 45Apostrophes
the holding hand · who holds what, which letters were left out, and plain plurals with no apostrophe
- 46Capitalization
the raised hand · capital letters for sentence starts and names, and small letters for everything else
Rest stops
The interludes are not quizzes. Nothing on them is scored. Each holds one poem, a few words on how to read it, and a line for you to write.
- II Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman · the heart of many hands · take it after Quiz 5
- IIA Word Is Dead
Emily Dickinson · the praying hands · take it after Quiz 47
Next on the trails
- 10Structure: how the whole piece is built, and why that shape
- 37Subject–verb agreement, even when phrases interrupt
- IIIInterlude III, after Quiz 10
- 11Function of a sentence or paragraph: what this part is doing here
- 38Verb tense: keeping time consistent across a passage
The map lists all fifty-nine topics and marks each new quiz as it arrives.