GED guideSubjects
GED Language Arts Study Guide: Reading, Evidence, and Grammar
GED language arts asks you to read, use evidence, and edit sentences. This page has an original passage, an evidence example, and one grammar correction. The essay has its own guide.
Short answer
Reasoning Through Language Arts is a 150-minute test of reading for meaning, arguments, and grammar, including a 45-minute extended response. For the reading items, mark what the passage says before you infer. For grammar, fix the sentence you were given. The essay is a separate task: choose the better-supported position and explain the evidence. That task has its own guide.
What this subject is asking
GED.com describes three topic areas: reading for meaning, identifying and creating arguments, and grammar and language. The test has three sections. One of them is the written essay, timed at 45 minutes inside the 150-minute total, which also includes instructions and a 10-minute break. This page practices the reading and grammar work. The essay guide covers the response so the two tasks do not collapse into one list of tips.
An original passage and one inference
Marco put the library card in his pocket and left the overdue notice on the counter. He told his sister he would return the books after his shift. The notice said two titles were due yesterday.
What is supported? He still had the notice, and the notice said two titles were due yesterday. What is a step too far? That the library fined him, that he lost the card, or that he will miss the shift. Those endings are possible in life. They are not in the paragraph.
The useful habit is to point at the sentence. “The notice said two titles were due yesterday” is evidence. “He is irresponsible” is a judgment the paragraph does not earn.
Evidence versus a louder claim
A flyer says, “Tuesday’s workshop has a waiting list. Thursday’s workshop has four open seats.”
The supported claim is that Thursday still has seats and Tuesday is full enough to have a waiting list. An unsupported claim is that Thursday is a better workshop, or that the center should cancel Tuesday. Identifying an argument means noticing which claim the sentences can carry. Creating one, in the essay, means you have to do that with two passages. Do not rehearse the whole essay method here.
One grammar correction
Original sentence: “Each of the practice passages need a second reading.”
“Each” is singular. The correction is “Each of the practice passages needs a second reading.” The nearby plural “passages” is not the subject. A second check is tense: “need” and “needs” are present. Do not also change the sentence to the past unless the item asks for that.
Try another original reading or grammar item when you want a new passage. Passy does not score an extended response. Use the essay page for a worked paragraph you can compare with the official traits.
Trust the source
Official sources
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