<p>I'm having real trouble on the "Improving sentences/improving paragraphs" parts of the SAT. I'm OK with the hard vocabulary, but I'm not entirely sure what makes grammatical sense and so forth.</p>
<p>Advice?</p>
<p>How do you attach a file/link? Because I just typed up this great thing to help you, but when I copy and paste it, it gets all messed up, like the underlines disappear and stuff.</p>
<p>If you can tell me how to attach a Microsoft Word file or something, I can help you a lot.</p>
<p>Most likely, the first thing you want to address is your grasp of the grammar rules tested on the SAT. Check out this link for a pretty comprehensive list:
[SAT</a> Writing | Grammar Rules - ■■■■■■■■](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■/w/grammar-rules]SAT”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■/w/grammar-rules)</p>
<p>From there (and I know you’re probably sick of hearing this) it’s all about practice. You need to train your mind to see which types of sentences look wrong and which types of sentences look right. Pay attention to which types of grammar rules are tested the most often and what they look like when they’re used wrong.</p>
<p>The site I linked to above with the grammar rules also has some step-by-step methods for approaching these problems, those might help as well.</p>
<p>If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Good luck!</p>
<p>Richard</p>
<p>Yup I completely agree with steamed… after you know the basic grammer rules (there are only a few that show up) it’s all about practice. Grind out blue book problems and by the time you’ve finished the book you’ll be a pro fa sho.</p>
<p>@ freakchild12: Gee, thanks :). I don’t think you can attach files to posts here, but you can definitely underline/bold/italic words if you copy-and-paste stuff into posts. Just highlight the word with your mouse and press Ctrl and U, Ctrl and B, or Ctrl and I. Again, thank you ^^.</p>
<p>@steamedrice: Thanks, that link proved pretty helpful. It seems to cover everything I need to know. </p>
<p>@Detreacy: Practice, practice, practice… got it. Thanks :).</p>
<ul>
<li>Tip: Usually, but not always the case, the shorter/simpler the sentence, the better it is.</li>
</ul>
<p>Ex: (choose the best underlined form of the sentence)</p>
<p>Because of the test being difficult; Nancy had trouble solving some of the math problems.</p>
<p>a) Because of the test being difficult;
b) Because, the difficulty of the test being,
c) Because the test was difficult,
d) Because being difficult was the test,
e) Because the test was being difficult,</p>
<p>The best choice is choice C.</p>
<p>Also, watch out for commas (,) and semicolons (
because they can be tricky in sentences. Commas usually denote a pause in the sentence, while semicolons usually set off another complete idea or sentence (so a semicolon will follow an independent clause and lead to another independent clause/sentence)</p>
<p>Also, watch out for traps like: </p>
<p>“between you and me”, not “between you and I”</p>
<p>“between” = 2 people/things, while “among” = 3 or more people/things</p>
<p>“fewer” = numbers (as in “fewer people”) while “less” = amount (like “less salt”)</p>
<p>“Nancy and I”, not “Nancy and me”</p>
<p>“less/greater than”, not “greater then”</p>
<p>Also, watch out for changes in (1) tense, (2) singularity/plurality, and (3) subject</p>
<p>Ex. (choose the underlined portion that makes the sentence incorrect)</p>
<p>(1) Tomorrow, James is going to have given me the plans for the project,
(A)
which is going to take place next Saturday
(B) (C)
at the nature center.<a href=“D”>/U</a> (E) No error</p>
<p>The correct answer is A because the tense changes from the future tense (going to) to the past perfect tense (have given), which doesn’t make sense, because how can he have given something in the future, which hasn’t taken place yet.</p>
<p>(2) The number of students at my school who are taking at least one AP
(A)
class are greater than the number students at Eastwood Private
(B) (C)
School altogether.
(D) (E) No error</p>
<p>The correct choice is B because “are” refers to “The number of students”, which is singular, so “are” should be changed to “is” to make it correct.</p>
<p>Also, here is a trick: “The number of” = singular verb (is) “A number of”= plural verb (are)</p>
<p>Ex: The number of students at South High is very large.
A large number of students are taking AP classes.</p>
<p>(3) Washing one’s hands regularly is highly recommended, because if
(A)
you don’t, the likelihood of getting germs and bacteria
(B) (C)
increases.
(D) (E) No error</p>
<p>The correct answer is B, because at the beginning the sentence, the subject is “one” (a random person) but later it changes to “you”, which is not parallel with “one’s hands”. So these two versions are correct:
(1) Washing one’s hands is highly recommended,
because if one doesn’t, the likelihood of getting
germs and bacteria increases.</p>
<pre><code> (2) Washing your hands is highly recommended,
because if you don’t, the likelihood of getting
germs and bacteria increases.
</code></pre>
<p>I say, that was great! It must have taken a while to type up. Thank you :). -bookmarks thread for future use- </p>
<p>I wasn’t aware of things like the difference between “between” and “among”, or looking out for changes in subject, such as with the disparity with “you” and “one” (caught me out there, lol). Now I have a comprehensive list of everything to watch out for, which should really help my score.</p>
<p>Again, you have my thanks. That was jolly considerate of you :).</p>
<p>Sorry, the (A)s and (B)s and stuff got messed up, because the text box is a dumb size, so everything gets squished.</p>
<p>It’s actually harder to spot an error if parts of the sentence aren’t underlined, so it makes for better practice ^^. I might print this out and stick it in my SAT revision notes, come to think of it. It’s very useful.</p>
<p>I’m glad I could help. Writing, with practice, can become easy. I got an 800 on SAT Writing and 80 on the PSAT Writing. If you learn tricks and rules, you can definitely get 750+</p>
<p>A while back, I got 680 on the Writing part of a test paper, so I could definitely improve, lol :). Anything over 750 would be pretty good for me. I think I need to work on my essays, though.</p>
<p>does anyone know the what link steamed posted like a few months ago? it’s censored.</p>
<p>can someone…repost that link? its not there anymore…:(</p>