Easiest way to improve my writing?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>^ I have never seen the because of/due to rule and I usually only get around 2 wrong on my Writing section…</p>

<p>Also the above is ‘because of’ because it modifies the verb. The sentence is also not a fragment if the dependent clause was removed.</p>

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<p>thankyou guys =)</p>

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<p>the bottom line is:</p>

<p>“due” is used as an adjective
“becuase of” is used as preposition
“caused” is a verbal-adjective, so it is also used as an adjective.</p>

<p>So, “do to” and “caused by” function in the same way in a sentence, which differ from “because of”</p>

<p>So it is NOTlegitimate to say :
The plan was postponed due to the rain
although I hear this sort of thing all the time -.-
If you substitute “due to the rain” with any other adjective (red/ big/ good…), the sentence does not work gramatially.
Here is the right usage:
The delay of the plan was due to/caused by the rain.
as was should be followed by an adjective-phrase here.</p>

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<p>My question is, in the first sentence posted above:

  1. By the time the bank guard closed the doors, a riot had erupted due to the long lines and shortage of tellers.</p>

<p>why does “shortage” not need a "the’ preceding it? Why is it not “…due to the long lines and THE shortage of tellers”?</p>

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<p>Because there’s already a “the” next to “long lines.”</p>

<p>“The cats and dogs were happy” is grammatically correct. It doesn’t have to be “The cats and the dogs.”</p>

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<p>I too agree that RR is kind of overrated… i have it, but i prefer to use Maximum SAT over RR for writing.</p>

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<p>^ prefer…to =P</p>