EXERCISES ON WORDS AND EXPRESSI ONS TO AVOI D

True-False Questions
1. Always use bias-free language, language that uses words and phrases that dont discriminate
on the basis of gender, physical condition, age, race, gender, or any other quality. F
2. Today, the term Oriental is preferred over Asian. A
3. Likewise, Latina is the preferred designation for males with Central and Latin American
backgrounds. A
4. Only give someones race if it is relevant to your narrative. Further, if you do mention one
persons race, be sure to mention everyone elses. F
5. The nonbiased term is the deaf; the biased term is people with hearing impairments. A
6. Sexist language assigns qualities to people on the basis of their gender. A
7. Sexist language discriminates only against women, not men. F
8. Non-sexist language treats both sexes neutrally. A
9. Avoid using man, he, or him to refer to both men and women. A
10. In a business setting, professional titles do not take precedence over Mr. and Ms. A
11. To make your language nonbiased, use plural pronouns and nouns whenever possible. A
12. If you want your documents to sound important, use a little inflated language, words and
expressions that make the ordinary seem extraordinary. A
13. Avoid euphemisms if they obscure your meaning. A
14. Use euphemisms to spare someones feelings, especially in delicate situations. F
15. Clichs are wordy and unnecessarily complex. As a result, clichs become meaningless
because they are evasive and wordy. A

Rewrite each sentence to remove the bias.
Pilots their planes they get
Example: Every pilot must inspect the outside of his plane before he gets into the cockpit.

1. Throughout the history of mankind, war has been the main way countries have obtained
additional land.
2. In my opinion, a person cannot be a good doctor if he is not caring, concerned, and
competent.
3. Every student has been tested at least once in his life.
4. I would also ask if a professor is biased about his students.
5. A parent must use her love and understanding when she and her child disagree.
6. If an employer dresses well, then he presents a positive image to his employees and
customers.
7. A student on a student visa is permitted to work on campus, and he is paid $5.25 an hour.
8. A candidate for high office must have a supportive wife and family.
9. All a person can do is his best.
10. If a parent wants his children to grow into responsible adults, he should provide them
with discipline, support, and guidance.
11. A professor should correct his students' papers according to this set of predetermined
guidelines.
12. From the beginning of time, mankind used horses in one way or another.
13. Dan's grandmother lives by old wives' tales.
14. Are there any freshmen who would like to work in the Writing Centre?
15. We need more manpower.
16. Mrs. Yu looks remarkably good for her age.
17. These stockings are available in black, suntan, and flesh colour.
18. I see that Marci forgot to bring her lunch. Shes acting a little blonde today.
19. Mrs. Clinton and George W. Bush met to discuss strategy.
20. Pat really went on the warpath when her son stayed out past his curfew.
21. The club now admits women and other minorities.
22. Women can leave their children at the day-care centre.
23. Win a fabulous vacation: a day at the spa for her and 18 holes of golf for him.
24. We welcomed all guests, their wives, and their children.
25. I completely forgot where I put the package; I must be having a senior moment.
26. Studying the techniques by which an actor achieved his success can help other actors
succeed.
27. Each doctor should send one of his nurses to the seminar.
28. If you use a technical word that he wont understand, explain it to him.
29. Each department head should report her progress by May 1.

Multiple-Choice Questions
Choose the best answer to each question.
1
. Which of the following terms is considered sexist today?
(a) Senator
(b) Representative
(c) Average person
(d) Mankind
2. Today, all the following terms are considered biased except
(a) Fireman
(b) Policeman
(c) Humanity
(d) Female lawyer
3. A clich is
(a) An overused expression, often a metaphor or simile
(b) A fresh, vivid description
(c) Rarely found in everyday speech and writing
(d) Inflated language that contains many unnecessary words
4. All the following expressions are considered clichs except
(a) As fresh as a daisy
(b) A torrid thunderstorm
(c) Right as rain
(d) Sick as a dog
5. All the following expressions are examples of evasive, dishonest language except
(a) Made redundant
(b) Fresh bread
(c) Laid off
(d) Involuntarily leisured
6. The phrase automotive internists for car mechanics is an example of
(a) A simile
(b) Inflated language
(c) A metaphor
(d) A clich
7. Euphemisms are best defined as
(a) Words and phrases that dont discriminate on the basis of gender, physical condition, age,
race, gender, or any other quality
(b) Overused words and phrases
(c) Inflated language that contains many unnecessary words
(d) Inoffensive or positive words or phrases used to avoid a harsh reality
8. Language that is wordy and unnecessarily complex is often called
(a) Euphemisms
(b) Clichs
(c) Bureaucratic language
(d) Sexist
9. George Orwell gave writers all the following advice except
(a) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(b) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
(c) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(d) Never use the active voice when you can use the passive voice. (invers)
10. All the following advice about writing style is valid except
(a) Write as you speak.
(b) Write simply, clearly, and directly.
(c) Suit your words to your purpose, audience, and topic.
(d) Use fresh and descriptive words and expressions.

Briefly describe the style of each of the following selections, identifying the purpose and
audience. Then decide which style is closest to your own and why. If you wish to change
your writing style, which essay is closest to the style you want to adopt?
1. When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a
certain latitude, both to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled to
assume, had he professed to be writing a Novel. The latter form of composition is presumed to
aim at a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course
of mans experience. The former while, as a work of art, it must rigidly subject itself to laws,
and while it sins unpardonably, so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart
has fairly a right to present that truth under the circumstances, to a great extent, of the writers
own choosing or creation. If he think fit, also, he may so manage his atmospherical medium as to
bring out or mellow the lights and deepen and enrich the shadows of the picture. He will be wise,
no doubt, to make a very moderate use of the privileges here stated, and, especially, to mingle
the Marvellous rather as a slight, delicate, and evanescent flavour, than as any portion of the
actual substance of the dish offered to the public. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

2. And so the reliance on property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the
want of self-reliance. Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they
have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they
deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure
their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man
becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature. Especially he hates what he
has if he sees that it is accidentalcame to him by inheritance, or gift, or crime; then he feels
that it is not having; it does not belong to him, has no root in him and merely lies there because
no revolution or no robber takes it away. But that which a man is, does always by necessity
acquire; and what the man acquires, is living property, which does not wait the beck of rulers, or
mobs, or revolutions, or fire, or storm, or bankruptcies, but perpetually renews itself wherever
the man breathes. Thy lot or portion of life, said the Caliph Ali, is seeking after thee;
therefore be at rest from seeking after it. Our dependence on these foreign goods leads us to our
slavish respect for numbers. The political parties meet in numerous conventions; the greater the
concourse and with each new uproar of announcement, The delegation from Essex! The
Democrats from New Hampshire! The Whigs of Maine! The young patriot feels himself stronger
than before by a new thousand of eyes and arms. In like manner the reformers summon
conventions and vote and resolve in multitude. Not so, O friends! Will the God deign to enter
and inhabit you, but by a method precisely the reverse. It is only as a man puts off all foreign
support and stands alone that I see him to be strong and to prevail. He is weaker by every recruit
to his banner. Is not a man better than a town? He who knows that power is inborn, that he is
weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and, so perceiving, throws
himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly fights himself, stands in the erect position,
commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man
who stands on his head. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

3. The film industry changed from silent films to the talkies in the late 1920s, after the success
in 1927 of The Jazz Singer. Mickey Mouse was one of the few stars who made a smooth
transition from silent films to talkies. Mickey made his first cartoon with sound in November
1928. The cartoon was called Steamboat Willie. Walt Disney (19011966) drew Mickey as well
as used his own voice for Mickeys high-pitched tones. Within a year, hundreds of Mickey
Mouse clubs had sprung up all across the United States. By 1931, more than a million people
belong to a Mickey Mouse club. The phenomenon was not confined to America. In London,
Madame Tussauds famous wax museum placed a wax figure of Mickey alongside its statues of
other famous film stars. In 1933, according to Disney Studios, Mickey received 800,000 fan
lettersan average of more than 2,000 letters a day. This was the same number of letters sent to
the top human stars of the day such as Douglas Fairbanks, Senior. To date, no star has ever
received as much fan mail as Mickey Mouse. (Laurie Rozakis)

4. While there are currently no societies where we can observe creolization occurring with a
spoken language, we can observe the creolization of sign languages for the deaf. Since 1979, in
Nicaragua, children at schools for the deaf have essentially formed a pidgin. None of them had a
real signing system, so they pooled their collections of makeshift gestures into what is now
called the Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragense (LSN). Like any spoken pidgin, LSN is a collection
of jargon that has no consistent grammar, and everyone who uses it uses it differently.
When younger children joined the school, after LSN existed, they creolized it into what is called
Idioma de Signos Nicaragense (ISN). While LSN involves a lot of pantomime, ISN is much
more stylized, fluid and compact. And children who use ISN all use it the same waythe
children had created a standardized language without need for textbooks or grammar classes.
Many grammatical devices, such as tenses and complex sentence structures, that didnt exist in
LSN, were introduced by the children into ISN. (Charles Rozakis)