Choose the correct possessive determiner to complete: The sentence should read: The college faculty emphasizes writing instruction in ______ curriculum-building guide.

• A. Its
• B. Their
• C. Our
• D. His

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is that possessive determiners must match the number and ownership of the noun they modify. The phrase The college faculty treats the group as a single unit, so the possessive should be singular: its. That gives: The college faculty emphasizes writing instruction in its curriculum-building guide.

Using its keeps the ownership tied to the faculty as a whole, rather than implying many individuals. Using their would suggest the guide belongs to multiple faculty members separately, which is less natural when the group is meant as a single collective entity. Our would shift the reference to the speaker’s own group, and his would be inappropriate for a gender-neutral collective noun.