California has passed a law requiring high school students pass a standardized exam in order to graduate--the CAlifornia High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).  Here are two seriously flawed sample questions from the study guide for the so-called Writing Conventions Strand (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/elaguide.asp).  Need I say more??  



John



Released CAHSEE question



The Alaskan rivers are clear and sparkling in summer however; they are frozen in winter.



A. in summer, however they are frozen in winter.



B. in summer; however, they are frozen in winter.



C. in summer: however they are frozen in winter.



D. Leave as is.



Solution



This is a run-on sentence—two sentences run together without punctuation between them—and needs to be fixed. "However" is a conjunction that needs to be set off by commas. It would be possible to put in a period and a capital H on however. But that is not one of the choices. You don’t join two complete thoughts that are equally important with commas or colons. The preceding sentence joins two complete thoughts that could be separated into two sentences. What punctuation mark joins the two thoughts into one sentence? A semicolon joins them. The correct answer is B. (WC 10.1.1)



Released CAHSEE question



The frightened pilot's face was ashen as he gingerly lowered the plane onto the Smiths' private __________ that time was running out for his ailing friend.



A. runway: he knew



B. runway, he knew



C. runway. He knew



D. runway but he knew



Solution



Read this one out loud, inserting the missing words. How many sentences do you have? Do you have one complete thought or two complete thoughts? How do you end a sentence? How do you begin a new sentence? You know this, don’t you?  Only one of these answers includes a period and a capital letter. The correct answer is C. (WC 10.1.1)