Being a journalist requires a good understanding of the English language at the absolute minimum. Our line of work deals completely with words, grammar, and telling stories. Without correct punctuation, grammar, and word use, we cannot do our job correctly.
The Language Primer NewsU module deals exactly with the rules of the English language in a way that helps the student understand those rules. Instead of lecturing what works and doesn't work, the module uses mini quizzes titled "Drills" to get the student to practice these rules. If the student applies what they learned in English classes throughout high school and college, they should do just fine.
This is what makes the module so time consuming. Instead of having these mini quizzes and then a single comprehensive quiz to end the module, the module has three separate final exams. Each exam, covering either grammar, punctuation, or word use, consists of fifty question multiple choice questions. I personally find this to be extremely unnecessary.
As stated earlier, a final quiz is smart, but fifty questions is entirely too many. If I was not doing this for class, I would have immediately quit the module. I had learned these rules in classes throughout high school and college, and didn't need to take a fifty question review session. Twenty questions would have been much easier to take in, and also would have given me the same information the fifty questions would have. While the fifty questions would make each question worth less points, there were multiple repeat questions.
I understand that journalists need a mastery of the English language to be successful and credible in their jobs. But three separate fifty question exams felt more like a final exam for a course than learning the rules of the English language. I would highly recommend taken an English course to get a mastery of the English language rather than using this test as a source of the rules of
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