<ol>
<li>The part of Cyrano de Bergerac earned Jose Ferrer both the Tony and the Academy Awards, considered his finest role.<a href=“A”>/u</a>The part of Cyrano de Bergerac earned Jose Ferrer both the Tony and the Academy Awards. considered his finest role.
(B)The part of Cyrano de Bergerac, it is considered his finest role, earned Jose Ferrer both the Tony and the Academy Awards.
(C)The part considered his finest role, of Cyrano de Bergerac, earning Jose Ferrer both the Tony and the Academy Awards.
<a href=“D”>b</a>Considered his finest role, the part of Cyrano de Bergerac earned Jose Ferrer both the Tony and the Academy Awards.<a href=“E”>/b</a>Considered his finest role, Jos6 Ferrer won both the Tony and the Academy Awards for the part of Cyrano de Bergerac.</li>
</ol>
<p>I picked E</p>
<ol>
<li>Since the the tiny Republic of San Marino has an area of only 24 square miles plus being completely surrounded by Italy, few people are even aware of its existence.</li>
</ol>
<p>I picked E</p>
<ol>
<li>Whereas the participating candidates described the debate as vigorous, to some members of the audience it seemed downright hostile.
<a href=“A”>b</a> to some members of the audience it seemed<a href=“B”>/b</a> but to some members of the audience it seemed
(C) and it seemed to some members of the audience
(D) and seemed to some members of the audience
(E) seeming to some members of the audience</li>
</ol>
<p>I picked B</p>
<ol>
<li>Running outdoors burns about five percent more calories than if you are running on a treadmill, in part this is because there is greater wind resistance outdoors.
(A) if you arc running on a treadmill, in part this is because there is
(B) if you run on a treadmill. in part because of the
(C) when running on a treadmill, in part because of the
(D) running on a treadmill. which is in part because of the
<a href=“E”>b</a> running on a treadmill. in part because there is**</li>
</ol>
<p>I picked B</p>
<ol>
<li>Tornadoes form when large air masses of different temperatures collide. which results from either a change in the direction or the speed of the wind.
(A) collide, which results from either a change in
(B) collide. resulting either from a change in
<a href=“C”>b</a> collide as the result of a change in either<a href=“D”>/b</a> have collided either as the result of a change in
(E) colliding results from either a change to</li>
</ol>
<p>“Considered his finest role” should modify “the part of Cyrano”, not the actual actor.</p>
<h1>13</h1>
<p>“plus being” is rather awkward. Should be “and is”</p>
<h1>8</h1>
<p>“Whereas” already establishes contrast in the sentence. “But” isn’t needed.</p>
<h1>9</h1>
<p>Avoid introducing another pronoun, like “you”. The first part makes no mention of pronouns.</p>
<h1>12</h1>
<p>Take a look at the end. You have “either”, “change in/form”, “the direction”, “or”, “the speed”, “of the wind.”
Either must be placed in between the stuff it’s contrasting. Putting it before “change in” makes the sentence compare “change in direction” to “speed”, which doesn’t make sense. You want “change in EITHER the direction OR the speed of the wind.”</p>
<p>Here are the grammatical reasons why the other choices were wrong:</p>
<p>9)
A. Fragment
B. Run on
C. Fragment
D. Correct
E. Dangling Modifier</p>
<p>13)
B. No grammatical error [I think] but just really, really awkward. </p>
<p>8)
A. Answer
B. Redundancy. Using “whereas” and “but” together is analogous to a sentence like “I don’t want nothing…”
C. Fragment
D. Fragment
E. Fragment</p>
<p>9)
I’m getting confused by all your periods and commas. Is that how the choices were written because there are so many obvious fragments in this that I think some of them are typos…</p>
<p>12)
A. Not parallel
B. Not parallel
C. Answer
D. Not parallel
E. Not parallel</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, I think all the reasons that I posted are some of the 35 most common SAT errors for the writing section. If you can just identify the errors in the question, the writing section should be a breeze for you because you can easily cross out those that you know have the same mistake (like number 12)</p>
<p>Josh05 … in a way it doesn’t matter “why” the answer is wrong if you can by intuition or habit recognize the right answer. That said, some of the “reasons” you’ve given for eliminating a choice are simply incorrect or not applicable. This is the case for the choices in (12), and at least for one or two of your other observations.</p>
<p>The use of “plus” to mean “and” [this occurs in question 13] is a relatively common word usage error. Plus may mean “and” in arithmetic, but it is not interchangeable with “and” in English, nor strictly speaking with “and” in mathematics. “I bought apples plus oranges” and “One and two equals three” are both poor English.</p>
<p>Fogcity:
Actually, by knowing the errors of the sentences, you will be able to cross out the choices that contain the error or another error and as a result, easily choose the correct answer.</p>
<p>For instance, if you look at a particular given sentence and the error is a dangling modifier, then you look at your choices and will find that at least two of the choices also have dangling modifiers, so you can quickly cross those out. Then you look at two more and you find oh! that one of the choices is a run-on and the other nonparallel so you can quickly take those out. </p>
<p>By knowing the errors, you will gain confidence in what you are looking for and what you are crossing out. </p>
<p>The SAT writing section creators make the choices so that although one sounds wrong, the correct choice will always be grammatically correct. And knowing the grammatical errors will be a huge boon to those who struggle in the writing portion of the test.</p>
<p>Intuition can only go so far because in society, our verbal language is a lot different than our formal language, and we sometimes get confused between the two, especially when the error for a particular question is idiomatic phrases.</p>
<p>Regarding Dorkyelmo’s question of when to use “plus” and when to use “and”, the conjunctions are not really interchangeable. “Plus” is sometimes used in spoken informal English, often with emphasis, to serve as an exaggerated form of “and”. In any case, apart from a statement like “1 plus 2”, or a play on words such as “Cat plus dog equals chaos”, my sense is that the correct intended use in formal written English when “and” and “plus” are the proposed choices is almost always “and”. But “plus” has its place, as for example: “She didn’t answer my phone calls. Plus she then complained that I never call!”. Here “Plus” means “moreover” and it does so with a sense of outrage.</p>