LASD Spelling, Writing and Vocabulary Practice
LASD's guide groups four language skills together: spelling commonly misspelled words, carrying a stated grammar change through a sentence, picking the clearest of several poorly written sentences, and understanding vocabulary as it appears in workplace documents.
- Spelling
- Correctly spelling commonly misspelled words in context
- Writing — grammar
- Carrying a stated grammatical change through a sentence correctly
- Writing — clarity
- Picking the one clearly and concisely written sentence among several poorly constructed ones
- Vocabulary
- Understanding words as they appear in common workplace documents
What these four sections have in common
None of them requires outside knowledge — they measure whether you can read and write plain workplace English correctly and clearly, which is why LASD groups them under one theme in its own guide. Together they make up half of the eight areas the test names.
How to practice each one
Spelling: focus on words that are frequently misspelled in professional writing rather than obscure vocabulary.
Writing grammar: practice applying one instructed change (tense, number, voice) consistently through an entire sentence, since a single missed word breaks the whole item.
Writing clarity: read several versions of the same sentence and identify which one a reader could understand on the first pass, without re-reading.
Vocabulary: work from words as they appear in memos, reports and policy language, not from a general word list.