Sentence Completions Guide

schoolisfun
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:52:06 +0000

I found this on sparknotes and made it a little more readable, and I find it to be very helpful :)

SENTENCE COMPLETION
Eight Step Strategy

1. Read the sentence and try to hear the problem.

2. If you find an error, eliminate A.

3. Before you look at the answer choices, figure out how to fix the error.

4. Find the correction that most closely matches yours.

5. If no correction matches, eliminate answers that repeat the error or contain new errors.

6. If you’re still stumped, reach into your bag of tricks

7. Plug your answer back into the sentence to check it.

8. If you’re still stumped—cut, guess, and run.

Common Grammar Errors
The Big Five:

1. Passive voice

2. Run-on sentences

3. Misplaced modifiers

4. Parallelism

5. Wordiness

Passive Voice

In sentences that use the active voice, the subject does the action. For example, in the sentence My dog ate a bunch of grass, you immediately know who ate a bunch of grass: the dog. The passive voice, in contrast, identifies the performer of the action late, or even never. For example, the sentence A bunch of grass was eaten leaves the reader unsure of who or what did the eating. Writers tend to avoid using the passive voice because it creates weak, wordy sentences.

So, how do you know if you are dealing with a case of “the passives”? Usually, you’ll spot these words: is, was, were, are (or any other version of the verb to be) and the word by. If you see these words, ask yourself, What’s the action and who’s doing it? If the person (or entity) committing the action appears only at the end of the sentence, or doesn’t appear at all, you’ve got a passive voice whispering bland nothings in your ear.

Run-on Sentences
A run-on sentence results when two complete sentences get jammed together. Run-ons usually sound breathless, as if an excited child is telling a story. Here’s an example of a run-on sentence:

I walked into the pet store and asked the clerk if she had any talking parrots, this made her roll her eyes.


The best way to test if a sentence is a run-on is to split the sentence in two and see if both halves of the sentence could function alone:

I walked into the pet store and asked the clerk if she had any talking parrots. This made her roll her eyes.


Because each half of this sentence is complete on its own, the two halves cannot be joined together with a comma.

Here are three ways to fix run-on sentences in Improving Sentences questions:
• Method 1: Use a semicolon.
• Method 2: Add a conjunction.
• Method 3: Make the clauses relate clearly.
METHOD 1: USE A SEMICOLON
One of the most common remedies you’ll find on the SAT is a semicolon. A semicolon ( signals that both sides of the sentence are grammatically separate but closely related to one another.

I walked into the pet store and asked the clerk if she had any talking parrots; this made her roll her eyes.


METHOD 2: ADD A CONJUNCTION
Another method for correcting run-on sentences is adding conjunctions. Suppose you see this run-on sentence:

In her incredible eagerness to cheer her team to victory, Amy the cheerleader has lost her voice, therefore her performance at the games is a silent one.


If you add the conjunction and:

In her incredible eagerness to cheer her team to victory, Amy the cheerleader has lost her voice and therefore her performance at the games is a silent one.


The run-on disappears.
METHOD 3: MAKE THE CLAUSES RELATE CLEARLY
Sometimes sentences contain strange relationships among clauses that can obscure the meaning of the sentence. (A clause is just a bunch of words with a subject and a predicate). Here’s an example:

The student council attempted to lure people to the dance with free food, most people attended the field hockey game.


This sentence suggests that despite the student council’s efforts, people didn’t go to the dance because they went to the field hockey game. You can correct this run-on sentence by adding a word that makes this relationship clear:
Although the student council attempted to lure people to the dance with free food, most people attended the field hockey game.

Misplaced Modifiers

A modifying phrase is a phrase that explains or describes a word. In standard written English, modifiers usually appear right next to the word they explain or describe. When modifiers are placed far away from the word they describe, the sentence becomes confusing because it’s often unclear which word the modifying phrase is referring to, as in the following sentence:
Eating six cheeseburgers, nausea overwhelmed Jane.
This sentence is problematic. We can logically infer that Jane was doing the eating, but because the modifying phrase (Eating six cheeseburgers) is so far from the word it’s intended to modify (Jane), figuring out the meaning of the sentence takes a lot of work. It could very well seem as if “nausea” rather than “Jane” is being described. Therefore, the meaning of the sentence could be that “nausea” ate six cheeseburger fries. The sentence as-is does not convey the meaning the writer intended.
When you see a modifier followed by a comma, make sure the word that the modifier describes comes right after the comma. A corrected version of this sentence could read:
After eating six cheeseburgers, Jane was overwhelmed with nausea.

The phrase eating six cheeseburgers describes what Jane is doing, so Jane’s name should come right after the phrase.
Another way to correct the sentence:
Nausea overwhelmed Jane after she ate six cheeseburgers.

Parallelism
In every sentence, all of the different components must start, continue, and end in the same, or parallel, way. It’s especially common to find errors of parallelism in sentences that list actions or items. In the example below, the pool rules are not presented in the same format, which means there is a parallelism error.

In the pool area, there is no spitting, no running, and don’t toss your half-eaten candy bars in the water.

The first two forbidden pool activities end in –ing (-ing words are called gerunds), and because of that, the third forbidden thing must also end in –ing. If you start with gerunds, you must continue with gerunds all the way through a list.
In the pool area, there is no spitting, no running, and no tossing your half-eaten candy bars in the water.

Wordiness
Wordiness means using more words than you absolutely need. It’s the crime you commit when you’ve only gotten four pages written of a six-page paper and it’s 1 a.m. the night before the paper’s due. It’s all that meaningless redundant junk you write in a desperate attempt to fill up space. Here’s an example from a paper Justin wrote senior year:

“The history of nineteenth-century France is one marked by great periods of continuity and change.”
Here’s what Justin’s got: Wordy meaninglessness with only the vague sheen of insight. Wordiness often comes hand in hand with the passive voice, as in Justin’s weak example (“is one marked by”). Other times wordiness shows up on its own. Here’s an example:

Pierre observed the diners and motels of middle America, and these are sights that are depicted in his trendy paintings.
(A) these are sights that are depicted
(B) the depiction of these sights is
(C) these sights having been depicted
(D) his depiction of these sights
(E) he depicted these sights

The Little Four:

1. Conjunctions

2. Fragments

3. Coordination and subordination

4. Pronouns

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are connecting words such as and, but, that, and or. They help link two parts of a sentence together. Suppose you have two sentences:
Abigail jumped off her horse. She then dove into a pool of deep water.

A conjunction such as and enables you to connect the two halves of the sentence:
Abigail jumped off her horse and into a pool of deep water
Improving Sentences questions test you on conjunctions by including sentences in which the conjunction makes the sentence illogical or clunky.
Nick wrote a novel and it depicts the life of a somewhat inspiring record store clerk
(A) and it depicts
(B) being the depiction of
(C) it depicts
(D) that depicts
(E) and depicting in it
The right answer is D. In this sentence, the conjunction that expresses the function of the novel more smoothly than the clunky phrase and it does.

Fragments

Fragments are almost the opposite of run-on sentences. Run-on sentences have clauses squashed together and joined incorrectly. Fragments have no independent clause and therefore are incomplete sentences.

The hunchback vice principal growling at students in the main office.
(A) The hunchback vice principal growling
(B) The hunchback vice principal having growled
(C) Growling, the hunchback vice principal
(D) It is the hunchback vice-principal
(E) The hunchback vice principal growls

In this sentence, the clause lacks a proper verb for the subject (the hunchback vice principal). The sentence would be complete if it read, The hunchback vice principal growling at terrified students was notorious for his brutal tactics. Notice though that the answer choices don’t fix the fragment that way. Instead, the correct answer, E, takes away the problem of expectation altogether. When you read The hunchback vice principal growls at terrified students, you don’t expect the sentence to continue. He growls and that’s the end of the story.

Coordination and Subordination

Bad coordination in a sentence happens when two clauses are joined together with a word that makes their relationship confusing.

John made T-shirts for the swim team, but he designed the logos himself.
(A) but he designed the logos himself
(B) however, he designed the logos himself
(C) and he designed the logos himself
(D) since he designed the logos himself
(E) and yet, he designed the logos himself

The sentence makes it clear that John creates his own T-shirts. He also designs logos for the T-shirts. So should the word but express the relationship between these two activities? No, because the two activities are closely related. The word but would make sense only if the sentence said something like John made T-shirts, but other than that he sat around playing video games all day. The word but suggests a contrast, a change in the direction of the sentence. If you get to the middle of a sentence and it takes an unexpected turn, look for a coordination error.

In this question, you can eliminate B because the word however is also a bad choice when joining these two clauses. It expresses the same kind of contrasting relationship as does the word but. You can eliminate E for the same reason. Answer D isn’t quite as bad as B and E, but John made T-shirts for the swim team, since he designed the logos himself doesn’t make that much sense. John doesn’t make T-shirts because he designs the logos, he makes T-shirts and designs the logos, which is exactly what C says. Bingo.
We thought it would be helpful to put together a list of conjunctions and split them up based on whether they suggest contrast or no contrast. Contrast conjunction words like but require the meaning of the sentence to change direction. For example, “I would go to school, but I don’t feel well.” Noncontrast conjunction words like and keep the sentence flowing in the same direction. For example, “After school I will practice piano and eat a snack.”

Here’s a list to help you learn the most important contrast and noncontrast conjunction words.

Noncontrast Conjunctions: and, because, since, so, thus, therefore

Contrast Conjunctions: but, although, while, rather, instead, unless, despite, however, nevertheless, notwithstanding

Subordination problems happen when there are two subordinate clauses and no main clause. You don’t need to know what that jargon means. Instead, you just need to know subordination problems tend to occur when sentences contain more than one of the conjunction words listed above. If you see one clause that starts with although, because, if, since, or so that, and then another clause that starts with one of these words, you’ll hear the subordination problem loud and clear:

Because Teddy thought his first date with Maria went well, so that he called her every day for the next week
(A) so that he called her every day for the next week
(B) although he called her every day for the next week
(C) because he called her every day for the next week
(D) he called her every day for the next week
(E) and he called her every day for the next week
You don’t need to know that this sentence is an example of bad subordination. Just notice that the two parts of the sentence don’t go together. Why don’t they fit together? Because there’s something strange about the middle of the sentence. You hit the comma, and then the sentence takes an unexpected turn.
The first part of the sentence sets you up: Since Teddy thought his first date with Maria went well, you expect something along the lines of he invited her out again or he kissed her on her front porch, right? Instead, you get the phrase so that. That just sounds incorrect and doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Knowing the sentence contains an error allows you to eliminate A. In B, the word although gives you exactly the same sort of problem that plagues the original sentence. Same with C, because. He thought the date went well because he called her every day the next week? No. That doesn’t make sense. In E, the word and doesn’t go with the although that starts the sentence. Plug D back into the sentence to make sure it fits: Because Teddy thought his first date with Maria went well, he called her every day for the next week. Lookin’ good.
As we emphasized a few times already, relying on your ear and on what “sounds right” is dangerous on the SAT. The SAT wants you to trust your ear and go with what you think might sound right in conversation or casual English. Remember that the SAT is anything but casual and that Improving Sentences questions test standard written English, not the same English you speak with friends or family. That makes learning the rules and familiarizing yourself with these words all the more important.

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns (words for people, places, and things)—words like she, her, hers, he, him, his, they, their, it, its, that, and which. There are a number of ways that pronouns can be used incorrectly (and we cover those in our Identifying Sentence Errors chapter), but in Sentence Improvement questions one type of pronoun error generally appears: ambiguous pronouns.
An ambiguous pronoun occurs when it isn’t clear to which noun the pronoun is referring. Take a look at the following sentence:
Arnold and Ebenezer went to the store, where he bought a pair of polyester pants.

Wait a minute. Who bought the pants? Arnold or Ebenezer? You can’t know, because that pronoun he is ambiguous. Now most Sentence Improvement questions dealing with ambiguous pronouns won’t be quite as obvious as that last example. Check this out:
Clay, Nina, and Melissa were crossing the street when, looking to the right, she saw a sign advertising a yard sale.

This sentence tries to hide the ambiguous pronoun she by separating it from the nouns Clay, Nina, and Melissa at the beginning of the sentence. You have to be able to see through such trickery, and notice that because there were two girls crossing the street, it’s unclear which of them saw the sign.

Cheap Tricks

1. Go with the shortest answer.

2. Cut answer choices that change the meaning of the sentence.

3. Cut answer choices that begin with words ending in -ing.

4. Get your A in gear.

Brent’s cowboy hat looks pretty silly, seeing as how he lives in New York City.
(A) seeing as how he lives in New York City
(B) since he lives in New York City
(C) considering him living in New York City
(D) seeing that he lives in New York City
(E) after all he doesn’t live in the West

Start off by applying our eight-step strategy (see page ) for Improving Sentences questions to this example. So, let’s say you give step 1 a whirl (“Read the sentence and try to hear the problem”) and you hear something funny about the phrase seeing as how. You can’t immediately think of a solution, but step 2 tells you that if you find an error, you can eliminate A. Steps 3 and 4 require you to have some hunch about how to fix the error, but in this example you’re hunchless. That means you should skip to step 5 and eliminate any answer choices that repeat the error. In this case, that means eliminating answer choice D, which repeats the awkward word seeing.
Let’s say you now find yourself stuck. B, C, and E look equally good to you. It’s time to bring on the cheap tricks.

Cheap Trick 1: Go with the shortest answer.
We’ll make this quick. When you find yourself staring blankly at two or three answer choices, go with the shorter answer choice. The SAT likes to keep the right answers concise. In the example about Brent’s goofy cowboy hat, B is not only the right answer, it’s nice and short: since he lives in New York City.

Cheap Trick 2: Cut answer choices that change the meaning of the sentence.
Be suspicious of answer choices that tweak the meaning of the sentence. E is the obvious suspect in the sample question: after all he doesn’t live in the West. Sure, there’s a better reason than the Cheap Trick to eliminate E: If you substitute E into the original sentence, you get Brent’s cowboy hat looks pretty silly, after all he doesn’t live in the West, which is a run-on sentence. But if you didn’t spot the run-on, and were in a panic, you could have eliminated E anyway, thanks to Cheap Trick 2. The sentence initially had to do with New York, and how ridiculous one looks sporting a cowboy hat there. E brings up the West—new territory. Remember, the directions explicitly instruct you to choose the answer that best expresses the meaning of the original sentence, so an answer choice that messes with the original meaning should be eliminated.

Cheap Trick 3: Cut answer choices that begin with words ending in –ing.
More often than not, gerunds (words ending in –ing) do not appear in correct answer choices. If you apply this trick to the goofy hat example, you can eliminate answer C considering him living in New York City. In cases like this one, -ing words are often awkward. If you read the sentence and have no idea which answer choice is right, get rid of the one with a word like considering.

Cheap Trick 4: Get your A in gear.
It’s worth reiterating that about one-fifth of the answers on this section will be A—“no error.” Students tend to freak out when they can’t find errors, and they pick some random B, C, D, or E rather than go with A. A is not your enemy. In fact, A can be very helpful when you’re in a bind on Improving Sentences questions. Here’s why: Cutting A tips the guessing odds in your favor. That means if you’re unsure how to fix the error in a sentence, but you’re certain it contains some error, you can always cut A and guess with confidence.