The appointmenht sat 3 ppt

Here’s a short list of some of the most frequently-tested word pairs: accept/except adapt/adept affect/effect allusion/illusion emigration/immigration eminent/imminent fewer/less lay/lie

We see them.

subject object

Pronoun questions on the SAT will often pur-posefully confuse the subjective and objective cases, as

in the following example:

Incorrect: I am taller than him

This is a very common mistake Whenever a

pro-noun follows than, it should be in the subjective case,

because in the than + (pro)noun construction the verb

is understood, even if that verb is not articulated:

Correct: I am taller than he [is]

Though we usually cut off the verb, the pronoun must still act as if it is there Thus, use the subjective

case with than constructions.

The other common pronoun error is to have the subjective case in a prepositional phrase:

Incorrect: We will split the profits evenly

between her and I

Nouns and pronouns in prepositional phrases are always objects, so the sentence requires the

objec-tive pronoun:

Correct: We will split the profits evenly

between her and me

And finally, the often-confused who and whom errors fall into this category Who is the subjective form,

whom the objective (A memory trick: Whom and him

are both objects and both end in m.)

Incorrect: Whom lives in this house?

Correct: Who lives in this house? (He lives

in this house.)

Incorrect: To who shall I address this letter?

Correct: To whom shall I address this

let-ter? (Address the letter to him.)

Idiom Idioms are expressions that are characteristic of a

par-ticular language, and they are often the most difficult aspect of a language to learn But they are essential to clear and effective communication, and you can expect

at least one question about idioms on the Writing sec-tion of the exam

Most of the time, the idioms that are tested are (1)

prepositional idioms (e.g., take care of, according to)

and (2) idiomatic use of infinitives and gerunds (e.g.,

want to meet, practice swimming) And most of the

time, by listening carefully to the sentence as you read

it, you will be able to hear this kind of mistake Listen

to the following sentences as you read them, and you should be able to hear the errors:

Incorrect: His behavior gets under my

nerves

Correct: His behavior gets on my nerves

In this case, the correct idiom uses the preposition

on An idiom similar in meaning, gets under my skin, uses the preposition under.

Idioms with infinitives (to + verb: to water) and gerunds (verb + ing: watering) are equally likely to

appear on the exam Here’s an example:

Incorrect: Experts suggest to water your

gar-den late in the day when the sun is less intense

While there are some general guidelines for when

to use infinitives and gerunds, there are no hard and fast

rules, and the best guide is your ear It simply sounds wrong to say suggest to water Indeed, suggest should

always be followed by a gerund:

Correct: Experts suggest watering your

garden late in the day when the sun is less intense

Word Choice

Affect or effect? Whether or weather? Fewer or less?

Com-monly confused words are another question topic you are likely to see on the SAT Writing section

Here’s a short list of some of the most frequently-tested word pairs:

accept/except adapt/adept affect/effect allusion/illusion emigration/immigration eminent/imminent fewer/less

lay/lie leave/let number/amount raise/rise

sit/set than/then

If one of the underlined words or phrases in the Sentence Errors questions contains a commonly con-fused word, check to be sure the right one is being used Chances are that’s where the error lies Here’s an example:

Incorrect: There are less students enrolled

then last year

Both less and then are misused here The

cor-rected sentence would read:

Correct: There are fewer students enrolled

than last year

In addition, remember to keep your pronouns

straight The possessive pronouns its, your, their, and whose are often confused with the contractions it’s (it is), you’re (you are), they’re (they are), and who’s (who

is), as in the following example:

Incorrect: The debate ended and the

dele-gates placed they’re votes

The votes belong to the delegates, so the

posses-sive their is the correct word for this sentence:

Correct: The debate ended and the

dele-gates placed their votes

Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs

Because adjectives and adverbs serve similar func-tions—they both modify or describe—they are often confused and therefore make good candidates for SAT questions Remember that adjectives modify nouns or pronouns while adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs If a descriptive word is underlined in a sentence, and you haven’t found another error, double-check to make sure the descriptive word is in its proper form

Incorrect: The path dropped steep after we

rounded the turn

Steep modifies the verb drop, so it needs to be in

the adverb form:

Correct: The path dropped steeply after we

rounded the turn

– T H E S AT W R I T I N G S E C T I O N –

Other frequently tested issues with adjectives and adverbs include comparisons Remember that the

com-parative form (-er) is for comparisons between two

things The superlative (-est) is for comparisons among

three or more things Instead of -er or -est endings,

some two-syllable modifiers and all modifiers with

three or more syllables form the comparative degree

with more and the superlative degree with most.

Comparative: Tony’s Pizza is better than

Zach’s

Superlative: Tony’s Pizza is the tastiest in

town

Comparative: Maria’s Italian Ices are more

delicious than Pete’s

Superlative: Maria’s Italian Ices are the most

delicious in town

Double comparisons—formed when both an -er

or -est ending and more or most are added to a

modi-fier—and double negatives, formed when two negative

words are used, may appear on the SAT as well

Incorrect: This is the most longest I’ve ever

waited for a pizza

Correct: This is the longest I’ve ever

waited for a pizza

Incorrect: This isn’t hardly the best pizza in

town

Correct: This isn’t the best pizza in town

Remember, good is an adjective (good dog) and well is an adverb (he is well trained).

 P a r t 2 : I m p r o v i n g S e n t e n c e s

The Improving Sentences multiple-choice questions

test exactly what their name suggests These items test

more than your grammar skills; many times, you are

asked to choose which of the five sentence choices is the smoothest and clearest Thus, Improving Sentences questions test another level of your writing skills Improving Sentences questions cover a wide range of issues, including grammar and usage, sentence structure and logic, and style This section describes the question format, provides strategies for answering these questions, and reviews the writing issues you are most likely to see in Improving Sentences

Question Structure

In each Improving Sentences question, part or all of the

sentence will be underlined Choice a will repeat the

original underlined text Approximately one in five

times, choice a is the correct answer because the

orig-inal version is the best (most clear, concise, and correct)

version of the sentence Answer choices b–e will offer

different versions of the underlined (portion of the) sentence Your task is to determine which choice offers the best version of the sentence

Some answer choices will correct or improve the original problem, if there is one Some will continue to make the same mistake and/or introduce new ones

Only one choice will be both grammatically correct and the most clear and concise way to express the idea.

If it sounds like Improving Sentences questions are a little more complex than identifying errors, you are right Instead of focusing on individual words or phrases to determine the error, you need to look at larger structural and stylistic issues within the sentence

to determine the correct answer Finding that answer requires two distinct steps:

1 Determining what, if anything, is wrong with the

underlined portion of the sentence

2 Determining which of the answer choices fixes that

mistake and does not introduce a new mistake.

Improving Sentence Questions are the most numerous in this section (approximately 25 of 49) But there are several strategies you can use to narrow down your choices and select the best answer

Sample Improving Sentences Question

Jackson Pollock, a twentieth-century American painter, is well known and renowned for creating abstract paintings by dripping paint on canvas

a a twentieth-century American painter, is well

known and renowned for creating

b an American painter who lived and painted in

the twentieth century, is well known for the creation of

c he is an American painter famous and

renowned for creating

d a twentieth-century American painter, is

famous for creating

e a twentieth-century American painter, is well

known and prominent for creating

Choice d is the correct answer—it is the only one that

is not repetitive or wordy In the original item (choice

a), well known and renowned mean the same thing; as does famous and renowned in choice c; and well known and prominent in choice e Choice b is incorrect because

it is wordy and awkward; clearly, if an artist painted in the twentieth century, he also lived in the twentieth cen-tury There is no need to state both points

Strategies for Improving Sentences

Though more challenging than Sentence Errors, Improving Sentences are still quite manageable Here are some specific strategies you can use to tackle them with confidence

1 Use the 3 C’s Your job is to find the version that most

effectively expresses the meaning of the sentence Find

the answer that is correct (no grammar or usage errors or lapses in logic), clear (no ambiguity or tan-gled sentence structure), and concise (no wordiness).

2 Pinpoint the error Try to determine the error as

you read What’s wrong with the underlined por-tion? Is it faulty parallelism, or unnecessary wordiness? (The most common errors are cov-ered in the next section.)

3 Eliminate all choices with the original error If you identify an error, eliminate choice a (don’t

even bother reading it; it only repeats the original prompt) Eliminate any other choices that make that same mistake

4 Eliminate all choices that make other errors.

From the remaining choices, eliminate any ver-sions that introduce a different error, even if they correct the error in the original item This includes any versions that are grammatically cor-rect but are unnecessarily wordy, ambiguous, or use unnecessarily complicated sentence structure

5 Let the choices guide you If you are unable to

identify the error in the original (assuming there

is one), use the answer choices as your guide Scan each version to see what aspect of the origi-nal sentence is changed and how The way the original is rewritten will often reveal the nature

of the error in the original prompt

6 Look for the most commonly tested errors There

are seven kinds of mistakes that appear most often

in Improving Sentences on the SAT If you are hav-ing trouble findhav-ing an error, do a quick check for the common errors described in this section

7 Remember the “No error” option Approximately

one in five sentences will be correct as written

Improper Coordination or Subordination

Within sentences, clauses (groups of words with a

sub-ject and verb) are often connected by coordination

(when two independent ideas are of equal importance)

or subordination (when the idea in the subordinate

clause is less important than the one in the main clause and cannot form a complete sentence on its own):

Coordination: We are going to dinner and

then we are going to a movie

Subordination: After we go to dinner, we are

going to a movie

Before we go to a movie, we are going to dinner

– T H E S AT W R I T I N G S E C T I O N –

One of the most common issues found in Improving Sentences addresses coordination and

sub-ordination, because it tests your ability to see logical

relationships between ideas To tackle these questions,

you need to determine how the ideas in the clauses

work together Is one idea in addition to the other? In

contrast? Is there a progression in time or sequence?

How exactly does one idea relate to the other? For

example, take a look at the following sentence:

Incorrect: The polar icecaps are melting at

an alarming rate, and some peo-ple still do not believe in global warming

There are two distinct ideas here: (1) the polar ice-caps are melting at an alarming rate and (2) some

peo-ple still do not believe in global warming But the

relationship between these ideas isn’t correctly

expressed by the coordinating conjunction and, which

expresses the idea of addition Instead, the conjunction

(whether coordinating or subordinating) needs to

express contrast:

Correct: The polar icecaps are melting at

an alarming rate, yet some people still do not believe in global warming

Correct: Although the polar icecaps are

melting at an alarming rate, some people still do not believe in global warming

Here’s another example:

Incorrect: Esteban can do advanced math in

his head, for he does not need a calculator

What’s the relationship between the two ideas? There’s a cause and effect situation here The cause: Esteban can do math in his head The result: He doesn’t

need a calculator For does express cause and effect, but

here, the cause and effect ideas are reversed The wrong clause is subordinated So the conjunction needs to be changed or the sentence rearranged Here are three corrected versions:

Improving Sentences

The kinds of errors in Improving Sentences cover a wide range of writing issues, including grammar and usage, sentence structure and logic, and style Fortunately, the ETS likes to focus on only a handful of spe-cific issues You can expect to see these seven kinds of errors—some of them over and over—on test day:

1. improper coordination or subordination of ideas

2. fragments and run-ons

3. faulty comparisons

4. misplaced modifiers

5. wordiness

6. using passive instead of active voice

7. incorrect punctuation

Of course, don’t forget about the eight most common errors covered in the Sentence Errors section.

These mistakes may also appear in Improving Sentences questions

Correct: Because Esteban can do advanced

math in his head, he doesn’t need

a calculator

Correct: Esteban can do advanced math in

his head, so he doesn’t need a calculator

Correct: Esteban doesn’t need a calculator,

for he can do advanced math in his head

Because there are often several conjunctions that express the same idea, be careful that the version you choose fits the 3 C’s There might be two versions that express the right relationship, but only one will be cor-rect, clear, and concise

Fragments and Run-Ons

Two of the most common errors made in writing are

sentence fragments and run-ons Sentence fragments

are incomplete thoughts, while run-ons are two or more complete thoughts running together without proper punctuation Here are some examples:

Fragments Incorrect: Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a

Mockingbird.

Incorrect: Some people still do not believe in

global warming Even though the polar icecaps are melting at an alarming rate

If you suspect a group of words is a fragment, look for the version that expresses a complete thought

Correcting the fragment might require adding a sub-ject or a verb, deleting a subordinating conjunction

(because, while), deleting a relative pronoun (who, that, which), or connecting a dependent clause to an

inde-pendent clause The fragments above can be corrected

as follows:

Correct: Harper Lee wrote To Kill a

Mockingbird.

Correct: Some people still do not believe in

global warming even though the polar icecaps are melting at an alarming rate

Run-Ons Incorrect: The polar icecaps are melting at

an alarming rate, some people still do not believe in global warming

Incorrect: The American Revolution was

modeled after the French Revolu-tion, it was one of the most important events in the history of Europe

If you suspect a test item is a run-on sentence, try to determine if there are two independent ideas that can stand alone Check the answer choices for one of the following fixes for run-on sentences:

1 Separate the clauses with a period We are here.

You are not.

2 Connect the clauses with a comma and a coordi-nating conjunction (and, or, nor, for, but, so,

yet) Make sure the coordinating conjunction

expresses the right relationship between the two

ideas We are here, but you are not.

3 Connect the clauses with a semicolon (and

pos-sibly a conjunctive adverb such as however, there-fore, or otherwise, making sure it expresses the right relationship between the two ideas) We are here; you are not.

4 Make one sentence dependent upon the other

by using a subordinating conjunction such as

although, because, since, or while Again, make

sure the subordinating conjunction expresses the right relationship between the two ideas

Although we are here, you are not.

The best correction is best determined by context

If a relationship between the clauses needs to be

– T H E S AT W R I T I N G S E C T I O N –