Citizenship · Writing Test Sentences

The USCIS writing test asks you to write a sentence spoken by the officer. Which sentence below represents an acceptable writing test response if the officer says: 'Congress makes the laws.'?

Correct answer

'Congress makes the laws.' — correct capitalisation, correct verb, correct plural

  1. A 'Congress made the laws' — wrong tense
  2. B 'The congress make laws' — article error, verb error
  3. C 'congress make the law' — lowercase, verb error, missing plural
  4. D 'Congress makes the laws.' — correct capitalisation, correct verb, correct plural

Why this is the answer

USCIS writing test requirements: You must write the dictated sentence. Acceptable: Correct words written legibly, even with minor spelling variations of non-key words. Common ERRORS to avoid: Capitalise proper nouns (Congress, President, America, United States); Use correct verb form (makes, not make); Include key words (the laws, not just law if dictated with 'the'). The officer dictates 1-3 sentences. USCIS tests writing at a basic level — your sentence does not need to be perfect, but must be recognisably correct to demonstrate basic English writing ability.

Source: USCIS Citizenship Writing Test — Writing Requirements

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About this topic: Writing Test Sentences

In the writing test the officer reads a sentence aloud and you must write it so that it has the same meaning; spelling, capitalisation and punctuation errors are tolerated unless they change the meaning. The words come only from the official USCIS writing vocabulary list. This is one of 25 Writing Vocabulary questions on writing test sentences, each with a full explanation on a single study page.

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