Attacking the Monster:

Grammar on the PSAT

Weapon #1 – Knowing the Test

Multiple-choice portion of the test:

39

questions

20 improving sentences

14 identifying sentence errors

5 improving paragraphs

Contain one or more grammar or usage errorsYour job is to find and sometimes fix the mistakes in 30 minutes

NO TERMINOLOGY! You don’t have to know what it’s called!

SAT QUESTIONS INCLUDE:

-Errors in Basic Grammar

(rely upon knowledge of correct use of parts of speech, punctuation, etc.)

-Errors in Sentence Structure (rely upon knowledge of phrases, clauses, punctuation, etc.)

-Errors in Word Choice(rely upon knowledge of usage and ear for diction)

-Errors in Idiomatic Expressions(rely upon knowledge of English idioms and colloquialisms)

Identifying Sentence Errors

Two important tips: About 20% (1 in 5) should be

“no error” (choice E)

What creates the error is usually in a part of the sentence that is NOT underlined!

The Big 5 Pronouns

Subject-verb agreement

Verb forms and tensesParallelism

Modifiers and Comparisons

Subjective Case( ___ go/goes.)

I

You

He,

She

It

We

You

They

Objective Case

(… to ____.)

Me

You

Him,

Her

It

Us

You

Them

Possessive Case

( It is ___ car.)

My

Your

His,

Her

Its

Our

Your

Their(s)

Pronoun Case Every pronoun has a case (type) that fits the job it will do in the sentence.

Basic errors in pronoun case

BAD:

Just between you and I this steak is terrible.

BAD:

Me and her like to go to the movies every Friday.

The Tarzan Rule

Common problem: You have two words joined by “and.” Is the pronoun in the correct case?

Solution: Use it by itself!

Don’t talk like Tarzan!

My friends and me went to the park.

Me went to the park.

The teacher gave good grades to my friend and I.

My teacher gave a good grade to I.

Now YOU try it:

The other delegates and him immediately

A B C

accepted the resolution drafted by the

D

neutral states. No error.

E

Pronoun shift

If you begin with “one,” stick with “one.”

(In other words, don’t

change pronouns in

mid-sentence.)

YOU try it again:

To become a world figure-skating champion

A

like Kristi Yamaguchi, one must be so dedicated

B

that you will practice six hours a day. No error

C D E

Note “one” just before B! Alarm bells!

Pronoun/Antecedent Error

The antecedent is the word to which a pronoun refers and with which it must agree in terms of number.

Ex. A

Each of the girls on those teams did their best to represent the school from which she came.

Ex. B

The average college student has difficulty adjusting to academic standards much higher than those of their school.Ex. C

Most infants, even unusually quiet ones, will cry with greater intensity when it begins teething.

Words to Watch For

Indefinite pronouns: Combinations of each, every, some, no, and any with body, thing, and one.

Ex. Everybody is bringing his or her own lunch.

Collective nouns: Although they mean everybody, they are in singular form.

Ex. A doctor should be careful when he or she prescribes medication.

Now YOU try it:

The reason first novels are so often their writers’

A B

best work is that it draws upon all the

C

experiences of the writers’ childhood. No error

D E

Watch for vague antecendents

Who is “it”?

Who are “they”?

YOU try it again:

Karen, James and Sam were hiking when, stumbling over a rock, he fell down a steep embankment.

(A) when, stumbling over a rock, he fell down a steep embankment

(B) and then he fell down a steep embankment after he stumbled over a rock

(C) when Sam fell down over a steep embankment after stumbling over a rock

(D) when Sam fell down a steep embankment, since he stumbled over a rock

(E) and, since Sam has stumbled over a rock, he fell down a steep embankment

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subjects and verbs must agree in number.

BAD

The local congressman, a reliable representative of both community and local interests, are among the most respected persons in the public sector.

Watch out for

Distractions between the subject and the verb (prepositional phrases, relative clauses)

Ex: High levels of air pollution cause damage to the respiratory tract

Levels is the subject; of air pollution is a prepositional phrase; the verb must be plural.

Now you try it

The scientific writings of Edward O Wilson, Stephen

Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins, which have continued

A the discussion of genetic issues raised by Charles

B CDarwin, is familiar to many high school and college

Dstudents. No error.

E

Watch out for

When a sentence begins with “There,” the subject comes after the verb.

Ex. There are a fire truck, an ambulance, and four police cars at the scene of the accident.

The subject is a fire truck, an ambulance, and four police cars; the verb must be plural.

Now you try it

There was a social worker and a crew of

A B20 volunteers who were sent to theC Ddisaster area. No error

E

Who, which, that

Can be singular or plural depending on what you’re talking about.

Our ability to use language is one of the things that set us apart from animals. (How many things set us apart from animals?)

Dr. Barker knew that Frank was the only one of his sons who was responsible enough to handle the estate. (How many sons were responsible?)

Now YOU try it:

The scientific writings of Edward O Wilson, Stephen

Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins, which has continued

A B

the discussion of genetic issues raised by Charles

C

Darwin, are familiar to many high school and college

D

students. No error.

E

Verb tense errors

Verb tenses show when things happen.There are six verb tenses.• Present: Dogs bite• Past: The dog bit the man yesterday.• Future: The dog will bite the man tomorrow.• Present perfect: The dog has bitten the man every day

this week.• Past perfect: The dog had bitten the man several times

before I found him.• Future perfect: By the time you get here, the man will

have bitten the dog several times.

The two problem tenses

Present perfect shows an action beginning in the past but continuing into the present.

EX: I have been to Disney World several times.

(And I might go again tomorrow. . . .)Past perfect shows an act that was

completed in the past before another past event.

EX: I had eaten half the sandwich before I realized the cheese was bad. (Ate first, then realized.)

BAD

Many superb tennis players turn professional at an alarmingly early age, but because of their lack of physical stamina, suffered early in their careers.

BAD

Over the last half-century, the building of passenger airliners had grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Verb Tense Error: Two questions

Does it make

sense?

Does it stay the same?

Now YOU Try It:

No matter where they came from or what

A B

their previous lifestyle is, the refugees were

C

grateful for having been granted political

D

asylum in the United States. No error.

E

Conditionals

. . . are something else you’re expected to know.

REMEMBER: “If I were a rich man. . . .”

Now you try it

The teacher, if she was so inclined, A

could give everyone a bad grade on B C

his or her paper. No error.D E

Faulty Parallelism

Lists of things doing the same job in a sentence must look alike.

Things being compared or contrasted must look alike.

BAD

I love running, swimming, and to ride a bike.

BAD

A healthy economy can be measured not only by business growth but it has a psychological effect on people.

Now YOU try it:

A talented and versatile artist, Twyla Tharp has been

A B a dancer, choreographer, and collaborated on various

C D

productions. No error.

E

Common Sentence Construction Mistake – Bad

subordinationSome SAT questions ask the reader to revise for clarity (clearness).

BEWARE OF “AND”!

BAD

Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first book and she was the age of sixty-five years old then.

The SAT hates “and;” you almost always have to replace it with a subordinating conjunction.

GOOD

Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first book when she was sixty-five.

Now YOU try it:

Roger had just walked into his office and that was when he was told that his plan had finally been approved.

(A) and that was when he was told

(B) and then he learned

(C) when it was learned by him

(D) and then they told him

(E) when he learned

When in doubt, go with the shortest answer on these!

Improving Sentence Questions:

* Relate to a small number of grammatical issues

* Generally concern structure rather than just correctness.

•Sentence fragments

•Misplaced Modifiers

•Faulty coordination/subordination

•Run-on sentences

On these questions, A is the no error answer.

Sentence fragments =

Sentences that lack an independent clause because of a missing verb or because they begin with a subordinating conjunction

Ex. A

Whereas many office managers are growing more and more dependent on facsimile machines, others resisting this latest technological breakthrough.

Ex. B

In the summertime the kindergarten class that plays on the rope swing beneath the crooked oak tree at the bottom of the hill.

… often comes away with an abundance of skinned knees and hair smelling of sunshine.

Watch out for

-ing words (They’re not verbs!)Going to the store

Dependent clause wordsWhen, if, because, though, after, while, until, during, since, who, which, that

The conversation starter tip

You can’t start a conversation with a sentence fragment!

“Hi, there! When I went to

the store.”

Now you try it:

Scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans, which are realistically depicted in the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner.

A. Scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans, which are realistically depicted in the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner.

B. Scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans being realistically depicted in the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner.

C. The paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner realistically depict scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans.

D. Henry Ossawa Turner, in his realistic paintings, depicting scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans.

E. Henry Ossawa Turner, whose paintings realistically depict scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans.

Misplaced modifiers =

modifiers whose distance from the word they are describing creates in the reader mistaken impressions

BAD

When flashing, you should not speed through a yellow light.

Probably good advice, but likely not what the writer intended.

REMEMBER: An –ing phrase at the beginning of a sentence must always describe the subject!BAD

An advertisement was withdrawn by the producer of the local news program that was considered offensive by the city’s minority communities.

What was considered offensive here? The ad? The producer? The program?

Now you try it

Looking up from the base of the mountain, the trail seemed more treacherous than it really was.

A Looking upB While looking upC By looking upD ViewingE Viewed

Faulty coordination/subordination =

when sentence clauses are joined incorrectly

BAD

Ben Franklin was a respected and talented statesman, and he was most famous for his discovery of electricity.

Remember that SAT hates “and”!

Ex. B

Since the small electronics industry is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors, but demand for the computer chip continues to be high.

You only use a coordinating conjunction between two groups of words that are the same thing.

Now you try itThe students, discovering they can address issues more

effectively through letter-writing campaigns, so they avoid public demonstrations.

A The students, discovering they can address issues more effectively through letter-writing campaigns, so they avoid public demonstrations.

B The students have discovered they can address issues more effectively through letter-writing campaigns, so they avoid public demonstrations.

C Now that the students have discovered they can address issues more effectively through letter-writing campaigns, and so they avoid public demonstrations.

D Discovering they can address issues more effectively through letter-writing campaigns, so the students avoid public demonstrations.

E The students discovered they can address issues more effectively through letter-writing campaigns, but they avoid public demonstrations.

Run-on sentences =

two independent clauses incorrectly joined together

Ex.A

The decrease in crime can be attributed to a rise in the number of police officers, more than 500 joined the force in the last year alone.

(Your teacher may also call them comma splices or fused sentences.)

Corrected –

The decrease in crime can be attributed to a rise in the number of police officers. More than 500 joined the force in the last year alone.Ex. B

The Humber Bridge in Britain was completed in 1981 it is the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world.

Corrected –

The Humber Bridge in Britain, the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world, was completed in 1981.

Improving Paragraphs Questions:

* General organization questions

* Revising sentences questions

* Combining sentences questions

Skills overlap with general grammar (reviewed in section one)

Improving Paragraphs Questions:Now YOU try it:

Take a look at the following paragraph and question.

(6) Albert Einstein was a great physicist. (7) He won a Nobel Prize in Physics. (8) He got the prize for his research into the photoelectric effect. (9) Later physicists demonstrated the validity of Einstein’s ideas.

Which of the following is the best way to combine sentences 7 and 8?

(A) The Nobel Prize in Physics that he won was for his research into the photoelectric effect.

(B) Having researched the photoelectric effect, he won a Nobel Prize in Physics.

(C) He won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his research into the photoelectric effect.

(D) He got the prize in physics, the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his research into the photoelectric effect.

(E) Because of his research into the photoelectric effect he got the Nobel Prize in physics.

You are now armed and ready

to slay the SAT dragon!