<p>Whether the sentence is perfect grammar doesn't matter. Was there a better choice?</p>
<p>No, those were the only two good ones. I remember the rest of them sucked.</p>
<p>Grammar does matter, even more than style i think, on the PSAT's. If it "sounds good" but is grammatically incorrect, it is wrong.</p>
<p>Yankee and blackbelt:</p>
<p>tell me why you think it is <em>as is commonly believed</em>. I think there is a grammatical mistake, even though it "sounds good".</p>
<p><em>despite a common belief</em> is grammatically correct as far as i can see.</p>
<p>So:</p>
<p>grammitcally correct > sounds good + grammatically incorrect</p>
<p>How is "as is commonly believed" grammatically incorrect? Please tell me which grammar rule this breaks</p>
<p>jesus christ...</p>
<p>I already said that "despite a common belief" is redundant since the word "not" is used just before...NOT and DESPITE are the SAME THING</p>
<p>Yes, and if you are going to bring up the thing where "despite a common belief" is an independent clause (like you said earlier), it's definitely not...and just for your information, the PSAT does NOT test comma usage, so that theory's out...any others?</p>
<p>It was on my other post^</p>
<p>There is a misplaced comma.</p>
<p>"Swimmers rub grease on themselves not to keep their bodies warm as is commonly believed, but to reduce friction" would be correct, since "as is commonly believed" is a subordinate clause and needs to be part of the bigger clause, not separated by commas.</p>
<p>However, if you put an extra comma in there and separate that phrase, it becomes "Swimmers rub grease on themselves not to keept their bodies warm, as is commonly believed, but to reduce friction". </p>
<p>Like I said before, when you separate something with commas, it implies that you can move that phrase around in the sentence w/o screwing up the grammar. "As is commonly believed, swimmer rub grease on themselves not to keep their bodies warm, but to reduce friction" is a completely different meaning.</p>
<p>That's why you cannot separate that phrase with commas from the bigger phrase. Subordinate means it depends on something. If you use commas, you are making the phrase independent, which is incorrect ( if you move that phrase around, the sentence changes meaning).</p>
<p>However, with <em>despite a common belief</em>, you can separate that phrase with commas, because it is independent (you can move it around to the beginning of the sentence and it'd still be ok).</p>
<p>So mine can be in 2 different places in the sentence and still be correct, while yours is incorrect in both places.</p>
<p>If <em>despite a common belief</em> sounds weird to you, find the grammar mistake behind it and show it to me, because I must have overlooked it.</p>
<p>did he not just say the PSAT doesn't test comma usage...reading problem?<br>
If your writing score is this bad, i'd love to see your reading score. Anyway, the PSAT DOES test style, as has already been pointed out, and "despite a common belief" is one of the worst styles of writing I have ever seen. So that coupled with the fact that comma usage isn't tested makes you WRONG.</p>
<p>No, the PSAT does not test commas, but it does test subordination and coordination, which has a lot to do with commas.</p>
<p>subordination and coordination has to do with adjectives, I fail to see the relevence</p>
<p>Hey man, I didn't see his post when I was typing out my wicked long one. Look at the times on them.</p>
<p>Stop throwing around insults. Just tell me what is wrong in terms of grammar. Grammatically, I believe yours is incorrect. If it is wrong in terms of grammar, i don't care how good it sounds. It is wrong on the PSAT! </p>
<p>Show me where I am wrong grammatically, and stop the insults.</p>
<p>you may not be wrong GRAMATICALLY jesus christ, it tests STYLE get it through your head</p>
<p>Look in your PSAT booklet. Subordination and coordination deal with PHRASES that act as adjectives and INVOLVE COMMAS, SEMICOLONS, AND PUNCTUATION.</p>
<p>phrases that act as adjectives..."as is commonly believed" and "despite a common belief" do not act as ajectives</p>
<p>OMG>.........</p>
<p>I don't care about style if the grammar is already wrong. Mine might not be stylish, but yours is not right in grammar. Which is worse? I think even the PSAT's care more about grammar than they do about style.</p>
<p>We've pointed out that "as is commonly beleived" is infact, grammatically correct.</p>
<p>ahhhh, you brought up the adjectives. I just assumed you were sure about the adjectives. If that's the case, then coordination and subordination don't have anything to do with adjectives.</p>
<p>Yeah, I checked. I don't think adjectives have anything to do with sub and coor.</p>
<p>ours isn't wrong gramatically...since "as is commonly believed" does not function as an adjective (it is a dependant clause) it is not a subordinating/coordinating phrase, and therefore has nothing wrong with it. The style of yours is incorrect...get "the elements of style" and read it. Now.</p>
<p>tell me why it's grammatically correct. I didn't see you point it out.</p>
<p>Tell me why the commas are in the right place.</p>
<p>they're in the right place because it's a dependent clause...and because they're not in the WRONG place</p>