Home Introduction   The Exercises Set 1 Newsroom 1 - Newsroom 10 Set 2 Newsroom 11 - Newsrroom 20 Set 3 Newsroom 21 - Newsrroom 30 Set 4 Newsroom 31 - 40 Set 5 Newsroom 41 - 50 Set 6 Newsroom 51 - 65   Newsroom-All Random selection from all exercises The Review Exercises All of them Practice on Specific Topics Another way to use these exercises   Additional Resources

Ron Hartung and Gerald Grow's Newsroom 101.com

A Newsroom-Classroom Collaboration

Exercises in Grammar, Usage and Associated Press Style

These free, self-instructional exercises are based on issues of grammar, usage and AP style that arose at a daily newspaper. They are offered here for people who are learning or reviewing journalistic language. Teachers are invited to assign students to practice these exercises, but there is no provision for a teacher to track student performance. Please note: Many of the exercises apply to English in general, but some of them apply only to journalistic language as governed by The Associated Press Stylebook and may differ from standard English usage. When an explanation refers to "the official dictionary," that is Webster's New World College Dictionary, the AP's first reference for anything not covered in the Stylebook itself.

Note: This section is experimental and under development. Send your Practice on Specific Topics This section provides intensive practice on specific areas of grammar. Most items consist of questions from the quizzes above. Some of the material is new. Some of these review quizzes are quite large. Some of the items could belong to a different category as well, and some items are not yet in their proper categories. Hyphens (64 items) Nouns (24 items) Possessives (30 items) Pronouns (34 items -- for him and me, his or her vs. their, etc.) Spelling (64 items) Subject-Verb (115 items) Word Usage (186 items -- fewer/less, homed/honed, pored/poured, etc.) Dropped Word Endings (36 items -- use(d) to, suppose(d) to, etc.)   A Grammarian's Idea of Fun The World's Easiest Quiz Some Grammar Demons in "Single Choice Quiz" format. (You'll get them all correct!) Single-Choice Quiz No. 1 Single-Choice Quiz No. 2 If Bureaucrats Wrote Ads--a humorous look at wordiness and inflated language

Credits The examples and answers came from Ron Hartung of the Tallahassee Democrat -- grammar consultant, newsroom coach, intern mentor and author of the weekly "Traffic Doctor"column. These exercises were edited and put online by Gerald Grow -- professor of journalism at Florida A&M University and internationally unrecognized cartoonist -- who has also added new material to the site. Please report to him any errors in the quizzes or problems with the quiz software. This material is copyrighted, but at this time you may use it without additional permission for non-commercial educational purposes.

Gerald Grow's Home Page

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