Praxis Core Writing Questions: Grammar, Revision, and Research Skills

What kinds of selected-response questions will you face?

For Praxis Core Writing selected-response questions, first identify the task: sentence correctness, passage revision, or research judgment. ETS's Writing Study Companion gives you 40 questions in 40 minutes and includes language, research, and writing-revision skills.

The current Writing test is 5723, checked November 3, 2026. Its Language and Research Skills for Writing category accounts for 40% of the test and contains most selected-response questions. Text Types, Purposes, and Production accounts for 60% and includes selected-response questions plus both essays. Those category weights do not mean that 60% of the selected-response questions are essay-related, or that any particular grammar rule has a fixed number of questions.

Start each item with the instruction. Finding an error, choosing a clearer sentence, and choosing evidence for an argument require different checks. Formal grammar labels are not required by ETS; you need to recognize what works and explain why.

Use the Praxis Core content and format guide to place these tasks within the three tests. The examples below are original teaching exercises, not ETS questions. The practice methods are editorial suggestions.

How do you diagnose agreement, pronoun, and sentence errors?

Read the complete sentence before considering a repair. Find who or what performs the action, then check whether the rest of the sentence fits that meaning.

Agreement: “The box of markers are on the desk.”

Corrected: “The box of markers is on the desk.” The subject is box. The nearby plural noun markers describes the contents; it does not control the verb. Temporarily covering “of markers” makes the problem easier to see.

Pronoun reference: “When Ana spoke with Beth, she explained the schedule.”

If Ana is the person explaining, revise to: “Ana explained the schedule when she spoke with Beth.” The original pronoun leaves the reader unsure which person explained. Check that a proposed repair preserves the intended meaning supplied by the surrounding passage.

Modifier placement: “Walking into the classroom, the clock caught Maya's eye.”

Corrected: “Walking into the classroom, Maya noticed the clock.” Maya is walking. Putting her immediately after the opening phrase makes that relationship clear.

Sentence completeness: “Although the room was crowded.”

This leaves the thought unfinished. “Although the room was crowded, we found seats” supplies a complete main clause. For a suspected fragment, ask whether the words can stand as a complete statement in the given context.

Parallel structure: “The workshop teaches participants to plan lessons, assessing progress, and communication with families.”

Corrected: “The workshop teaches participants to plan lessons, assess progress, and communicate with families.” Each item now follows the same verb pattern.

After choosing a repair, reread the whole sentence. An answer can fix agreement while introducing an unclear pronoun or changing the meaning. For continued practice by content area, full Praxis Core prep planned for launch includes Language and Research Skills for Writing among its eight categories.

How do punctuation and word choice affect the answer?

Punctuation questions become easier when you identify the relationship between the parts. Consider this original example:

“The workshop ended, the participants stayed to ask questions.”

Both parts can stand alone. A comma by itself does not join them correctly here. Two possible repairs are:

• “The workshop ended; the participants stayed to ask questions.”
• “The workshop ended, but the participants stayed to ask questions.”

Both are grammatical. The second explicitly expresses contrast. In a question with a stated purpose or surrounding passage, use that context to select the best available answer. Do not assume every correct repair is equally suited to every task.

Word choice also depends on the sentence. In “The schedule change effected attendance,” the intended meaning may be that the change influenced attendance. For that meaning, use “affected attendance.” Read the whole thought before replacing a word that merely looks familiar.

For a “no error” judgment, require an actual problem before changing anything. “The teachers reviewed the schedule before the meeting” does not need a more elaborate replacement simply because an answer choice sounds formal. Check agreement, tense, pronouns, sentence boundaries, and meaning, then keep a correct construction when the task permits it.

Record the reason behind each answer in a few words, such as “singular subject” or “two complete clauses.” This turns review into a reusable decision rather than a memory of the correct letter.

What makes a revision improve a whole passage?

A passage revision must serve the writer's purpose. A sentence can be grammatically correct and still be irrelevant, repetitive, or poorly placed.

Consider this original practice paragraph:

“An evening tutoring session would give students another time to get help. Some students work during the afternoon. The library walls were repainted last summer.”

If the paragraph's purpose is to explain the need for evening tutoring, the final sentence does not support it. Removing that sentence keeps the paragraph focused. A useful connecting sentence would be: “The evening session would serve students who cannot attend afternoon tutoring.” It links the scheduling proposal to the specific obstacle already mentioned.

Compare that addition with “Evening tutoring would guarantee that every student earns top grades.” The guarantee is unsupported by the paragraph. Stronger wording does not make stronger evidence.

For an insertion, deletion, or revision question, use this sequence:

1. State the paragraph's purpose in your own words.
2. Identify the requested change: support, organization, clarity, or emphasis.
3. Read the proposed sentence with the sentences before and after it.
4. Choose the option that serves that purpose without introducing an unsupported claim.

For broader question practice across Core, full Praxis Core prep is planned for launch with 1,200 questions across eight content categories. Use your error notes to decide which category needs attention next.

How do you judge a source or research strategy?

ETS includes credibility, relevance, citations, and research strategy in Writing. A useful source must help answer the actual research question, and its evidence must support the claim you want to make.

Suppose the fictional research question is: “Should our college library extend its opening hours?” Which source would be the best starting point for understanding current library use?

• Campus library entry records organized by hour, with collection dates and a description of how visits were counted.
• A desk-lamp seller's claim that longer study sessions always improve grades.
• An older handbook listing another college's library rules.

The campus records directly address use of this library and make the evidence traceable. The seller's claim concerns a different outcome and provides no supporting method. The other college's rules may offer a comparison, but they do not establish demand at this campus.

The entry records still have a limit: they cannot count visits during hours when the library was closed. A next research step could be to ask students about unmet demand, then examine who responded and what the questions actually measured. This is an original research-planning example, not a finding about any real college.

When evaluating an answer, ask: Does the source address the right people, place, and question? Can I identify its author and evidence? Does the proposed statement stay within what that evidence shows? For citation questions, also check which information came from a source and therefore needs attribution. A paraphrase still uses another source's ideas.

Practice applying sources in a longer response separately with the source-based essay guide. Building your own position is the focus of the argumentative essay guide.

How should you practice the 40-minute section?

Forty questions in 40 minutes works out to one minute per question on average. That is pacing arithmetic, not an ETS rule requiring you to spend exactly a minute on each item.

Begin with untimed practice so you can explain your choices. Then use timed sets to find whether sentence diagnosis, passage reading, or source comparison slows you down. For each missed or uncertain answer, write three things: the task, the clue you missed, and why your chosen option failed. Revisit that skill with a different example.

Try the 20 free Praxis Core practice questions for a broader starting check, then put targeted Writing sessions into the free Praxis Core study plan. Keep the two essay tasks on that schedule as well. If you are also preparing for Math, use the Praxis Core Math guide to give it its own practice time.

For short recall sessions alongside question practice, 450 flashcards are planned for launch as part of full Praxis Core prep, covering the wider Core preparation rather than a stated Writing-only count.

Your next step is to select one recurring error from today's practice, explain its rule, and correct a fresh example before returning to a mixed set.