Download SAT Writing Review

6.3.11
• Take a few minutes to review vocabulary
words for the quiz.
• Agenda:
– Quiz
– PP review for SAT writing
– Short practice
SAT Writing Review
Skill 1
Artifacts from Ireland, though (A) less
familiar (B) to the public than (C) many
other archaeological discoveries, is (D)
sophisticated in both design and
execution. No error (E)
D
• The verb needs to match the subject. If
the subject is plural, the verb should be
“are,” not “is”
Subject and Verb Agreement
• Trojans is doomed.
• Hector are violent.
It’s easy to see what’s wrong with these
sentences: the subjects do not match their verbs.
Trojans are plural but is is singular; Hector is
singular, but are is plural. Subjects and verbs must
match or “agree.”
• The SAT will test this by sticking a long
phrase or clause between the subject and
the verb, like so:
• The importation of predator species, which
stems from a laudable desire to break with
the usual chemical methods of pest
control, almost always lead to ecological
imbalance.
See the error?
If not, get rid of the intervening clause:
The importation of predator species almost
always lead to ecological imbalance.
• Predator species is not the subject—the
importation of predator species is.
Importation is singular; lead is the plural
form of the verb. The singular form of the
verb must match the singular subject.
The correct version is as follows:
• The importation of predator species,
[which stems from a laudable desire to
break with the usual chemical methods of
pest control,] almost always leads to
ecological imbalance.
Is the following sentence correct?
Inside the wooden horse is Achilles and
Odysseus.
Tricky!!
The subject is hidden here—it’s not
the wooden horse. What if you flipped the
sentence around so the subject, which
we’re accustomed to seeing at the
beginning of a sentence, comes first:
Achilles and Odysseus is inside
the wooden horse.
• The is sticks out more when the sentence
is rewritten this way; it should be are.
Achilles and Odysseus is a compound
subject; compound subjects take plural
verbs.
• Only the word and can create a compound
subject. As well as, or, and along with do
not create compound subjects.
• What, if anything, is wrong with the
following sentence?
Neither of those two airhead adventurers are
bright.
• The problem is that neither, either, and
none take singular, not plural, verbs. The
correction is:
• Neither of those two airhead adventurers
is bright.
Finally, watch out for nouns that seem plural but
are actually singular, such as:
• The series of lectures was very interesting.
• The team was ready for the big game.
• The couple finds happiness in each other.
Series, team, and couple are singular nouns that
refer to groups. Group, actually, is another good
example. By definition, a group has more than
one member, but a group itself is singular: one
group; many groups.
Skill 2
Originally a protest on conventional
A
B
painting, the Impressionist movement
exerted great influence on the art of its
C
D
time.
No Error: E
A
The correct sentence reads:
Originally a protest against
conventional painting, the PreRaphaelite movement exerted great
influence on the art of its time.
• The college entrance examinations will
test your ability to identify and correct
errors in verb tense sequence. This will
require both a knowledge of the verb
tenses and context-reading skills.
Grammar Topic 2: Verb Tense
• The tense of a verb indicates the time frame
of an action's occurrence. Actions that occur
now use the simple present tense, actions
that already occurred use the simple past
tense, and actions that will occur use the
simple future tense.
• simple present tense: I study. [This is
happening now.]
• simple past tense: I studied. [This
happened in the past.]
• simple future tense: I will study. [This will
happen in the future.]
• The perfect tense of verbs is used to indicate
the relative sequence of events in a
sentence. The present perfect tense
indicates that an action has been occurring
and may be continuing to occur now. The
past perfect tense indicates that an action
occurred in the past before another action.
The future perfect tense indicates that an
action will occur in the future before another
action.
• present perfect tense: I have studied, so I
will pass the test. [I studied in the past and
might still be studying now. I will pass in the
future.]
• past perfect tense: I had studied, so I
passed the test. [First I studied. I completed
this action, then I passed the test.]
• future perfect tense: I will have studied, so I
will pass the test. [In the future, I will study. I
will complete this action and then I will pass
in the future.]
By the time we arrived at the concert,
the opening band finished its set.
• This sentence contains an error in verb
tense sequence. The band finished
playing before we arrived, so the verb in
the main clause should be in the past
perfect tense.
Correct version:
• By the time we arrived at the concert, the
opening band had finished its set.
Which is correct?
• The Miller Glacier, which runs down from the
Columbia Ice Field, gives us a look back to a
time when the world is dominated by ice.
• The Miller Glacier, which runs down from the
Columbia Ice Field, gives us a look back to a
time when the world was dominated by ice.
• The second is correct because of the
correct shift in verb tense. The glacier
runs down from the field now, in the
present.
What’s wrong?
• I climbed onto the tour bus, but have no
idea of what was ahead.
• “had” no idea
What’s wrong?
• I collected my gear before today’s
excursion; my friend collects hers later.
• “will collect”
What’s wrong?
• I have read that glaciers were in constant
motion.
• “glaciers are”
• True statements need to be in the present
tense regardless of other verb tenses in
the sentence.
What’s wrong?
I would of walked further, but the signs
warning about bears stopped me.
“I would have walked…”
Don’t used a preposition when you need a
helping verb
Skill 3
1. Please rise/raise and face the audience.
Rise (to go up)
2. She has lain/laid on the couch all morning.
Lain (past participle of lie—to rest)
3. The price of fuel has risen/raised steadily.
Risen (past participle of rise-to go up)
4. The stagehands rose/raised the curtain for
each act.
Raised—to move something up.
• The types of questions on the SAT that
test knowledge of adjectives include
items that require the ability to:
– identify adjectives that incorrectly modify
verbs or other adjectives and replace
them with adverbs
– differentiate between adjectives and other
parts of speech in parallelism errors
– identify and correct dangling participles,
which are adjective forms of verbs that do
not clearly and correctly modify any word
in a sentence
– identify and correct errors in the use of
comparative, superlative, and absolute
adjectives
• An adjective is a word or group of
words used to describe a noun.
• The red apple was in a glass bowl.
• The adjectives in this sentence are
"red" and "glass." "Red" modifies the
noun "apple" and "glass" modifies the
noun "bowl."
• A prepositional phrase can act as an
adjective.
• The apple was in a bowl on the table.
• The prepositional phrase "on the table"
acts as an adjective to describe the noun
"bowl."
• A linking verb links a subject with a
predicate. When a subject is linked to an
adjective, the modifier is called a
predicate adjective.
• The apple tastes sweet.
• The verb "tastes" links the subject,
"apple," with the predicate adjective,
"sweet."
• A comparative adjective is used to
compare two people or things.
Comparative adjectives generally end in "er" or are themselves modified by "more"
or "less."
• An apple is sweeter than a lemon.
• I think that apples are more delicious
than bananas.
• Do not use a comparative adjective when
comparing more than two people or things,
as in the following sentence:
• After eating an apple, a banana, and a
peach, I decided that I liked the peach
better.
• "Better" is a comparative adjective
incorrectly used in this sentence to compare
three things. Use the superlative "best" in
this context.
• After eating an apple, a banana, and a
peach, I decided that I liked the peach best.
• A superlative adjective is used to
compare more than two people or
things. Superlative adjectives generally
end in "-est" or are themselves
modified by "most" or "least."
• Apples, bananas, and peaches are all
sweet, but peaches are sweetest.
• Apples, bananas, and peaches are all
tasty, but I think peaches are the most
delicious.
What’s wrong?
Your mistakes will be less if you proofread
your paper.
“fewer”—modifies a plural noun
“less”—modifies a singular noun
What’s wrong?
• Vera felt badly that Joe has such bad luck
that day.
• “bad”-adjective
What’s wrong?
• Then, with the track wet, the cars moved
more slow.
• “slowly” adverb modifying “moved”
What’s wrong?
•
•
•
•
We lost bad in the finals.
“badly” describes the word “lost.”
Are your plans going good?
“well” describes “going”
What’s wrong?
• I wish I could run as good as George.
• “well”
• Our friends needed help bad.
• “badly” modifies “needed”
Skill 4: Idioms
What’s wrong with these idioms?
1. Although my driving skills were not that
bad, my boyfriend was still a front-seat
driver.
• “back-seat driver”
2. Since the hungry campers had been
hiking all morning, lunch turned into an
eating frenzy.
• “feeding frenzy”
3. Although this problem was just a hole in the
bucket, and contributed to the problem greatly.
• “drop in the bucket”
4. I think learning karate has been a piece of pie.
• “piece of cake”
5. The break up was quite amicable; however,
when Adam started dating someone new, it just
added gas to the fire.
• “Fuel to the fire”
1. Although the bully seemed tough, he was
all bark and bite.
• “all bark and no bite”
2. I’ll be there in the drop of a hat.
• “at the drop of a hat”
Skill 5
Looking up from the base of the mountain, the trail
seemed more treacherous than it really was.
•
•
•
•
•
(A) Looking up
(B) While looking up
(C) By looking up
(D) Viewing
(E) Viewed
E
• Explanation:
When a modifying phrase begins a
sentence, it must logically modify the
sentence's subject; otherwise, it is a
dangling modifier.
• In this example, every option except (E) is
a dangling modifier.
What’s a double negative?
• Two words combined that are negative
which results in a meaning not intended by
the author of the sentence.
During the depression many Americans
didn’t have no jobs.
Can you fix them?
•
•
•
•
•
I can’t hardly believe it.
I can hardly believe it.
I couldn’t never have done it without help.
I couldn’t have done it without help.
Without scarcely any money, the family
spent very little on unnecessary things.
• With scarcely any money…
Fix…
• Didn’t nobody agree to write the book?
• Didn’t anybody agree to write the book?
Skill 6
Everybody will get their chance if they wait
A
B
C
patiently and quietly. E: no error
D
C
“Everybody” is singular and goes with
the pronoun “his or her.”
Agreement in Number
• Pronouns must agree with their
antecedents in number.
Lisa and Paul decided they were hungry.
• But, there’s some tricky pronoun rules
you’ll need to know that might trip you up
on the SAT…
What’s pronoun agreement?
• A pronoun takes the place of nouns.
They are going to get in to college early.
What do they test for on the SAT’s?
Pronouns need to agree with their
antecedents in number and gender—this is
what they’ll test for…
These are the tricky pronouns…
Singular (his or her)
everyone
everybody
somebody
someone
nobody
no one
one
either
neither
each
Plural (their)
several
both
few
many
Try these…
Neither Judy nor Phil think that they/ he or she will
win “most popular.”
Neither …nor = he or she
Anyone may submit their/his or her article for
submission.
Anyone = his or her
Either Christy or Erin thinks that they/she can
handle the situation.
Either … or = she
Either Jerry or the twins will bring their/his or
her stereo.
twins = their (closest)
Nobody will ever finish his or her/their work
on time.
Nobody = his or her
• Many of the team players is/are hungry.
(Many = are)
• Few is/are going to help planting trees.
(Few = are)
What’s wrong?
• Everyone on the Alaskan research trip was
a leader in their particular field.
• “their” should be “his or her” because its
singular
• Everybody wants their parents to get
along.
• “their” should be “his or her”
• Several on board had his or her own
special assignments.
• “his or her” should be “their”
• Neither Kate nor Lisa wanted their hair-tie
back.
• “their” should be “his or her”
Pronouns
• Subject pronouns are used when the
pronoun is the subject of the sentence.
You can remember subject pronouns
easily by filling in the blank subject space
for a simple sentence.
• Example:______ did the job.
I, you, he, she, it, we, and they all fit into
the blank and are, therefore, subject
pronouns.
• Subject pronouns are also used if they
rename the subject.
• They follow to be verbs such as is, are,
was, were, am, and will be.
Examples:
• It is he.
• This is she speaking.
• It is we who are responsible for the
decision to downsize.
• Object pronouns are used everywhere
else (direct object, indirect object, object of
the preposition). Object pronouns are me,
you, him, her, it, us, and them.
Examples:
Jean talked to him.
Are you talking to me?
What’s wrong?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Him and Jon love cake.
Subject-”he”
The caller was her.
She—renames the subject
It is me who wants to be prom queen.
“I”—renames the subject
What’s wrong?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
John and me went to the store.
“I”
The coach threw the ball to Tom and I.
“me”
Mark and him got sick on the roller coaster.
“he”
Steve and her were going on a trip.
“she”
What’s wrong?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Her and Jim ate all the pizza.
She
Me and Chad watched TV all night.
Chad and I
The teacher and him walked to the office.
he
Pat gave the papers to Wally and I.
me
Who (subject) or whom (object)?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
We discussed __ their first choice was.
who
For __ did you buy that tie?
whom
__ will be our Latin teacher?
Who
If you wished to know more, __ would you ask?
whom
We have learned much about __ these people were.
who
Skill 6
From a distance, Betty
A
seems rather short to me, but, when
B
I stand next to her, she's clearly
C
the tallest.
D
D
The writer compares his or her height to
that of one other person. If two things or
people are being compared, the adjective
needs to be in the comparative form, not
the superlative.
So, it should be “taller”
My high school's track
team is much better at long
A
B
distance running than the high
C
D
school that won the state
championship last year.
D
The writer clearly intended to compare two
track teams; grammatically, the writer is
comparing a track team to a high school.
Although it’s acceptable to substitute the
whole for the part—for example, high
school = track team—this substitution
should be applied consistently, a rule the
writer fails to apply in this case.
What’s wrong?
Tonya likes racing better than Meg.
Should be: “than Meg does.”
It’s an incomplete comparison
What’s wrong?
Festivals in my hometown are odder than
your hometown.
Festivals in my hometown are odder than
those in your hometown.
What’s wrong?
Many teens think that going to plays is not
as much fun as movies.
…as much fun as going to movies
Steve’s pumpkin in larger than any pumpkin
at the fair.
Steve’s pumpkin is larger than any OTHER
pumpkin at the fair.
He plans to study as hard if not harder than,
he did last time.
He plans to study as hard AS, if not harder
than, he did last time.
Faulty Parallelism
In questions that ask you to improve sentences, you
must pay attention to problems with parallelism.
• For example, the following is a typical improvingsentences-style question:
Because the storm was so severe plus being unexpected,
the emergency supplies did not arrive for over ten days.
No error.
In verb usage, "and" is sufficient; "plus being"
introduces a new verb structure and is not
necessary.
• Not Parallel: Mary likes hiking,
swimming, and to ride a bicycle.
• Parallel: Mary likes hiking, swimming,
and riding a bicycle.
– Not Parallel: The production manager was
asked to write his report quickly, accurately,
and in a detailed manner.
– Parallel: The production manager was asked
to write his report quickly, accurately, and
thoroughly.
• Not Parallel: The coach told the players that
they should get a lot of sleep, that they should
not eat too much, and to do some warm-up
exercises before the game.
• Parallel: The coach told the players that they
should get a lot of sleep, that they should not
eat too much, and that they should do some
warm-up exercises before the game.
• Not Parallel: The dictionary can be used for
these purposes: to find word meanings,
pronunciations, correct spellings, and
looking up irregular verbs.
• Parallel: The dictionary can be used for these
purposes: to find word meanings,
pronunciations, correct spellings, and
irregular verbs.
Lincoln was more concerned about
A
B
losing border state support than for
C
what abolitionists were going to do.
D
C
Lincoln was more concerned about
losing border state support than
ABOUT what abolitionists were going
to do.