Which of the following list is true? There are several characteristics common to all successful college students:

True or false: To understand causes, we look to the future for reasons that something happened. To discover effects, we look to the past for possible results of an action.

True or false? Distinguishing causes from effects is rarely an important part of understanding a cause/effect essay.

True or false? To summarize, state the author’s main idea in your own words. A summary is much briefer than the original or a paraphrase. As with a direct quote, you need to furnish the details of your original source.

True or false? With classification, you are trying to show what differences break the items into separate groups or types. With division, you let the similarities in the items help you set up categories that make sense.

True or false? The same items can be divided and classified in many different ways. The United States can be divided many different ways—into 50 states, 4 regions (Northeast, Midwest, South, and Pacific), and 6 time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, and Hawaii).

True or false: If you use a direct quotation from another source, you don’t need to put the exact material you want to use in quotation marks.

True or false: Process analysis essays fall into one of two main types—giving directions or giving information. The first type, giving directions, analyzes how something works; the second type (giving information) tells how to do something.

Revision involves moving ideas around and developing them as fully as you can for your readers; editing is the process of finding and correcting grammar and usage errors.

True or false? Definitions are the building blocks that help us make sure both writer and reader (or speaker and listener) are working from the same basic understanding of terms and ideas.