The appointmenht sat 4 ppt

Correct: After a long day at work, Mary decided to relax with a good book.. Correct: After a long, tiring day, Mary decided to relax with a good book.. No comma around “interrupters.” Wo

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

expressed, then the run-on needs a conjunction of

some sort The previous run-ons can be corrected as

follows:

Correct: The polar icecaps are melting at

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

Correct: The American Revolution was

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

Faulty Comparisons

A faulty comparison is an error in sentence logic, one

that’s often tough to catch because we speak in faulty

comparisons all the time Here’s an example:

Incorrect: I’ve seen every film by Stanley

Kubrick, and they’re better than any other director

You probably understood the sentence to mean that the films by Kubrick are better than films by any

other director, but that’s not what the sentence says If

you read carefully, you will see that the author is

actu-ally comparing the films of Kubrick to any other

direc-tor, not to any other director’s films, which is the

intended meaning

Fortunately, faulty comparisons are easy to fix:

You just have to make the comparison one of apples to

apples (films to films) rather than apples to oranges

(films to directors):

Correct: I’ve seen every film by Stanley

Kubrick, and they’re better than any other director’s

Correct: I’ve seen every film by Stanley

Kubrick, and they’re better than films by any other director

Here’s another example:

Incorrect: I’m more interested in the

crimi-nal justice program at Kensington College than in Taylor University

This sentence compares the criminal justice

pro-gram to Taylor University rather than to a propro-gram at

Taylor Here’s the kind of fix to look for:

Correct: I’m more interested in the

crimi-nal justice program at Kensington College than in the pre-law pro-gram at Taylor University

Correct: I’m more interested in Kensington

College’s criminal justice program than in Taylor University’s

Misplaced Modifiers

A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes another part of a sentence A misplaced modifier is

simply a modifier that’s in the wrong place, as in the fol-lowing example:

Incorrect: Worn and tattered, Uncle Joe took

down the flag and put up a new one

Now, Uncle Joe may be old and tired, but he’s not likely to be worn and tattered It’s the flag, of course, that is worn and tattered However, because the

mod-ifying phrase is next to Uncle Joe, the sentence is

con-fusing The rule regarding modifiers is simple: Any modifier should be placed as closely as possible to the word or phrase it modifies This makes correcting a misplaced modifier rather easy:

Correct: Uncle Joe took down the worn

and tattered flag and put up a new one

Here’s another example, this one from the pretest:

Incorrect: Held in 1927, President Calvin

Coolidge presided over the cere-mony to officially commence the carving of Mount Rushmore

Clearly, it was the ceremony that was held in 1927,

not President Coolidge Thus, the best choice is the

sen-tence that places 1927 closest to ceremony and that

con-forms to the 3 C’s:

Correct: President Calvin Coolidge

presided over the 1927 ceremony that officially commenced the carving of Mount Rushmore

Wordiness

Whether it’s the main mistake in the original prompt

or a flaw in one or more of the distracters, unnecessary wordiness is a common error in Improving Sentences

As a general rule, the more concise, the better

Wordiness has many causes, including:

■ “clutter” phrases such as because of the fact that

■ that, which, and who phrases (turn them into adjectives: the manual that is helpful becomes the helpful manual)

■ unnecessary repetition (e.g., the meeting is at 4:00 P M in the afternoon— 4:00 P.M is in the

afternoon)

■ inexact phrases (I am not in agreement vs I dis-agree; she was very upset vs she was devastated)

Notice how choices a, b, d, and e in the following

example all suffer from wordiness because they use

unnecessary which clauses while the correct answer,

choice c, uses concise adjectives:

First-generation Chinese American Maxine Hong Kingston blends fact and fiction, history,

and speculation in The Woman Warrior, a

memoir which was both award winning and

a best-seller

a The Woman Warrior, a memoir which was

both award winning and a best-seller

b The Woman Warrior, which was a best-seller

memoir and for which she won awards

c her award-winning and best-selling memoir,

The Woman Warrior.

d her memoir, The Woman Warrior, which was a

best-seller and which won many awards

e her memoir The Woman Warrior, which won

many awards and it was also a best-seller

Passive vs Active Voice

Finally, you may find one or more items or answer choices that use the passive instead of active voice In a passive construction, the subject of the sentence receives the action:

Passive: The top-secret mission was

compromised

In an active sentence, the subject directly per-forms the action:

Active: A double agent compromised the

top-secret mission

Notice the two sentences have different subjects: the thing (the mission) in the passive sentence, the doer (the double agent) in the active sentence Active sentences are usually more powerful, precise, and less wordy than passive sentences and, with few exceptions, will be the most effective version of a sentence

There are dozens of rules about the many different

punctuation marks in the English language

Fortu-nately, the punctuation errors on the SAT tend to stick

to only a few key categories Here are some common

comma and apostrophe errors

Comma Errors

There are many rules about when to use and when not

to use commas Here are the four comma errors you are

most likely to see on the exam:

1 Comma between subject and verb When a

sub-ject is immediately followed by its verb, nothing should come between them:

Incorrect: Mary, decided to relax with a good

book

Correct: Mary decided to relax with a good

book

2 No comma after introductory phrase or clause.

Introductory phrases and clauses should be fol-lowed by a comma:

Incorrect: By lunchtime Aidan had already

finished his project

Correct: By lunchtime, Aidan had already

finished his project

Incorrect: After a long day at work Mary

decided to relax with a good book

Correct: After a long day at work, Mary

decided to relax with a good book

3 No comma between multiple modifiers When

two or more words one of equal rank and modify the same word, they need to be separated by commas Otherwise, it will be unclear which words are being modified:

Incorrect: After a long tiring day, Mary

decided to relax with a good book

Correct: After a long, tiring day, Mary

decided to relax with a good book

Because both long and tiring modify the same word (day), they need to be separated by a comma Without the comma, it seems as if long modifies tiring instead of day.

4 No comma around “interrupters.” Words,

phrases, and clauses that interrupt the sentence

(and are not essential to the meaning of that

sen-tence) should be set off by commas:

Incorrect: Mary a pediatrician really enjoys

her work

Correct: Mary, a pediatrician, really enjoys

her work

The phrase a pediatrician is an

“inter-rupter” that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence We could take it out and the sentence would still be a complete, grammatically correct idea Thus, it needs to be set off with commas

Here’s another example:

Incorrect: Eva who always loved animals

enjoys being a veterinarian

Correct: Eva, who always loved animals,

enjoys being a veterinarian

In the following example, the who clause IS

essential to the sentence and SHOULD NOT be set off with commas:

Incorrect: Eva is the one, who wrote the

prescription

Correct: Eva is the one who wrote the

prescription

Here, the purpose of the sentence is to explain who wrote the prescription, so that clause is essential The context of the sentence will help you determine whether information is essential to the meaning and therefore whether commas are needed

Apostrophe Errors

Apostrophes are used to show possession (Adam’s, the general’s) and contraction (don’t, you’ve) Most often,

an apostrophe error will be a missing apostrophe or confusing possessive pronouns with contractions:

Incorrect: The regions open space continues

to disappear as a result of urban sprawl

Correct: The region’s open space continues

to disappear as a result of urban sprawl

Incorrect: Were planning to attend the

hear-ing to voice our objection to the proposal

Correct: We’re planning to attend the

hear-ing to voice our objection to the proposal

 P a r t 3 : I m p r o v i n g P a r a g r a p h s

Finally, we arrive at the third multiple-choice question type, Improving Paragraphs In this section, you will be presented with a short passage that requires revision—

a rough draft of some sort about a general interest

topic Don’t worry so much about what the passage says; your job is to choose the best ways to improve how

it says it

The draft will be followed by questions that cover

a range of writing issues, from the sentence level (gram-mar and usage, sentence structure, word choice, etc.),

to the paragraph level (paragraph divisions, transi-tions, paragraph unity), to the essay level (overall organization, development, support) The questions are designed to measure your ability to identify weak-nesses and improve the writing in a text This lesson describes the question format, the kinds of questions to expect, and strategies to help you determine the best answer for each question

Question Structure

The Improving Paragraph section begins with a short

passage (typically two to four paragraphs long) The

passage may be a draft of an essay, a letter to the editor,

an excerpt from a memo—some kind of general

writ-ing task Because it is a draft, it will need improvement

on many levels There will be a series of questions

fol-lowing the passage that make improvements on it

These questions can be divided into three general

cat-egories: revising individual sentences, revising

sen-tence pairs, and revising the big picture.

Revising Individual Sentences

These questions refer to a specific sentence within the

passage and ask you to determine the most effective

revision of that sentence These questions are essentially

the same as those in Improving Sentences, with the

exception that you will often need to consider the

con-text of the passage to determine the correct answer For

example, the alternate versions of the sentence in

ques-tion may offer different transiques-tions from the previous

sentence in the passage, but only one will be correct,

concise, and the most appropriate way to move from

one idea to another

Revising Sentence Pairs

These questions refer to two specific sentences within

the passage and ask you to determine the most effective

revision and/or combination of those sentences These

questions are also quite similar to Improving Sentences,

and they often focus on establishing the right

relation-ship (coordination/subordination) and proper

bound-aries between the two sentences Here’s a sample of

this type of question:

Which of the following is the most effective com-bination of sentences 13 and 14 (reprinted below)?

(13) Insomnia does not usually begin as a physical problem (14) It can affect one’s physical health.

a Insomnia is not usually a physical problem;

therefore, it can affect one’s physical health

b Insomnia is not usually a physical problem,

yet it can affect one’s physical health

c Insomnia not usually a physical problem can

affect one’s physical health

d Insomnia is not usually a physical problem, so

it can affect one’s physical health

e Insomnia can affect one’s physical health;

furthermore, it is not a physical problem

The correct answer is b The conjunction yet

prepares the reader for a contrast: is not usually (yet)

it can

Revising the Big Picture

“Big picture” questions ask about paragraph-level and essay-level issues such as organization and writing strategies Thus, the format and writing issues can vary greatly Here’s a sample big picture question:

Which of the following is the most logical order

of the paragraphs?

a 1, 2, 3, 4

b 1, 3, 2, 4

c 2, 3, 4, 1

d 4, 3, 2, 1

e 1, 4, 2, 3

Caution: Question Formats Vary!

Unlike Sentence Errors and Improving Sentences, the questions and answer choices for Improving

Paragraphs will vary, so please be sure to read each question carefully All will offer five choices (a–e), and