Read the paragraph from a student’s critical analysis essay. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson talks about independence through his use of big words and fancy argument skills. First, Jefferson states his thesis, which makes it seem important that the colonists get independence. Next, Jefferson gives evidence against the king of England and how he mistreats the American colonies. Finally, Jefferson suggests that colonists should stop paying taxes and fight, which is the obvious answer to the colonists’ problems.

What is the best way for the student to revise the essay?
The student should replace familiar language with more accessible language.
The student should replace scholarly language with informal language.
The student should replace formal language with more familiar language.
The student should replace informal language with formal language.

ANSWER: D The student should replace informal language with formal language.

He leaned his head against the wall; his eyes were shut, his hands clasped in each other, and his body seemed to be sustained in an upright position merely by the cellar-door against which he rested his left shoulder. the lethargy into which he was sunk seemed scarcely interrupted by my feeling his hand and his forehead. his throbbing temples and burning skin indicated a fever . . there was only one circumstance that hindered me from forming an immediate determination in what manner this person should be treated. my family consisted of my wife and a young child. our servant-maid had been seized, three days before, by the reigning malady, and, at her own request, had been conveyed to the hospital. we ourselves enjoyed good health, and were hopeful of escaping with our lives. our measures for this end had been cautiously taken and carefully adhered to. they did not consist in avoiding the receptacles of infection, for my office required me to go daily into the midst of them; nor in filling the house with the exhalations of gunpowder, vinegar, or tar. they consisted in cleanliness, reasonable exercise, and wholesome diet. who is the story’s first-person narrator