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Improving Paragraphs Posts

SAT Writing: Purpose of Passage or Sentence

By posted July 7, 2011

On the Improving Paragraphs section, purpose questions come in two varieties. In the more common variety, purpose questions ask you to examine the entire passage and identify the main idea or the author’s purpose. Because these questions require a thorough understanding of the entire passage, students tend to find these particular questions difficult. The second, less common variety asks you to identify the purpose of a particular sentence in context.

You may notice that these questions may seem to belong to the SAT Reading section. Indeed, purpose questions abound in the Reading section, and you should approach purpose questions in Writing in much the same way. The main difference between the two is that the purpose questions in Writing may catch you off guard. Many Writing questions focus on grammar and writing skills, so they may not require a deep understanding of the passage’s content. Thus, it’s a good idea to get in the habit of reading the entire passage so that questions like these will not catch you off guard.

Try this SAT improving paragraphs practice question for more SAT practice!

Before we check out an example, look over these common traps set by the test-writers:

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SAT Writing: Inserting or Removing Sentences

By posted April 13, 2011

On Improving Paragraphs problems on the SAT , you’ll encounter two common types of questions: sentence addition and sentence removal. While the two question types seem quite different, they are both testing you on logical flow in a paragraph. A sentence addition problem asks you to choose the sentence that can function has a smooth transition between two relatively disjointed sentences. Conversely, a sentence removal question asks you to remove a sentence that disrupts logical flow, often because it is digressive or irrelevant to the subject at hand. Let’s take a closer look at each type.

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Sentence Addition

To understand sentence addition problems, you must understand the specific function of a sentence in context.

  • Topic Sentences: To begin a paragraph, a topic sentence must adequately introduce the subject or purpose of the paragraph that follows. If asked to insert a sentence at the beginning of the paragraph, make sure you read the paragraph to understand the overall subject.
  • Concluding Sentence: Each paragraph should end with a sentence that concludes (that is, summarizes or reflects upon) the content of the paragraph. The concluding sentence should also smoothly transition into the next paragraph, if one exists.
  • Inside a Paragraph: If asked to insert a sentence inside a paragraph, make sure you read a few sentences above and below in order to grasp a sense of the paragraph’s logical direction. The inserted sentence should smooth over any lack of transition.

Sentence Removal

Sentence removal tests the same writing skills that sentence addition tests, but you are more likely to encounter irrelevant, digressive, or redundant sentences. These are sentences that either add unnecessary info or unnecessarily repeat info.

Here is an example of a sentence removal question. Below is a single paragraph taken from an essay which summarizes the plot of Stephen King’s The Stand:

Once they have found homes and organized committees to begin repairing the damage to the city, the people of Boulder begin to rebuild. (9) They find survivors with the training and knowledge to get the electricity, which had gone out when there weren’t enough people left to operate the power plants, running again. (10) This enables them to refrigerate food and use lights and appliances in their homes; these were the first steps toward returning to the “old” (i.e., pre-Apocalypse) ways of life. (11) The book subtly points out that the same progress that allowed humanity to live in such comfort and convenience before might eventually lead once more to society’s downfall. (12) Similarly, this theme is addressed in Marge Piercy’s novel Woman on the Edge of Time.

Example 1: Paragraph 2 could be most improved by omitting which of the following sentences?

A. Sentence 8

B. Sentence 9

C. Sentence 10

D. Sentence 11

E. Sentence 12

First, let’s try to identify the main function of this paragraph and the general shape of its logical flow. The paragraph continues the plot summary of the story. Here, we learn about the efforts of a group of people to rebuild after apocalyptic destruction. We learn about how the group reclaims lost technologies like electricity, but the speaker reveals the irony that these technologies may be more harmful than helpful in this post-apocalyptic civilization.

If you read each sentence in the answer choice, there should be one sentence that sticks out as irrelevant and distracting. Sentence 12, which inexplicably compares The Stand to another novel, problematically changes the logical flow of the paragraph and fails as an appropriate concluding sentence. Since the entire paragraph is only about The Stand, a sentence comparing the story to another is off topic, making the paragraph less effective as a cohesive unit. E is our correct answer.

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SAT Writing: Except, Not, or Least Questions

By posted March 4, 2011

On the Improving Paragraphs section, you’ll sometimes encounter questions that ask you to choose the answer choice that will “not” or “least likely” improve a sentence or paragraph. These questions run the gamut of writing skills, but they all require your absolute attention. Since your instinct is almost always to choose the best choice, you may forget to read the question closely and then choose one of the four answer choices that happens to be an improvement. Some “except, not, or least likely” questions may look like this:

  • All of the following techniques are used in the passage EXCEPT?
  • Within the context of this passage, which of the following revisions would NOT improve the clarity of sentence 4? (rewritten below)
  • Which of the following sentences is LEAST LIKELY to function as a transition between sentences 3 and 4?
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First, notice that these questions will kindly capitalize the words “except,” “not,” or “least likely.” This visual emphasis is a gift from the test-writers. On the SAT, our brains are wired for seeking improvements and correct answers—these questions reverse that traditional thinking. And because they contain four improvements out of five choices, they may take some time to answer if you are using elimination. In other words, it may be easier to quickly spot a correct answer than it is to spot an incorrect answer. So, let’s check out an example to see how we might approach one of these.

Example 1: Within the context of this passage, which of the following revisions would NOT improve the clarity of sentence 4? (rewritten below) Read more »

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SAT Writing: Verb Tense

By posted May 12, 2010

Verb tense is often a simple error to spot on Writing multiple choice problems, but when it comes to harder problems, you really should know the ins and outs of verb tense.

It’s easy to spot errors like “I will play basketball yesterday.” We know that such a sentence is logically impossible, and to fix it, we simply change the future tense to the past tense: I played basketball yesterday.

Many problems, however, aren’t so simple. To master these, it’s best to learn the different tenses in English–the ones most often tested on the SAT–and their function.

First, let’s take a look at the simple tenses:
Simple Present: The man runs. (He’s running right now)
Simple Past: The man ran yesterday. (He ran in the past)
Simple Future: The man will run tomorrow. (He will run in the future)

You may be thinking “duh,” but it helps to organize your knowledge of tenses–even the easy ones.

Here are the perfect tenses. The perfect tenses are a bit more complicated.

Test yourself with this SAT Writing question!

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Gerunds on SAT Writing

By posted March 8, 2010

A common writing mistake is thinking that gerunds are verbs. GERUNDS ARE NOT VERBS. Gerunds typically involve using a verb (in the -ing form) as a noun. Just because it looks like a verb + “ing”, does not mean it is a verb. Often times, SAT questions try to take advantage of this misconception by giving you sentences with gerunds but no verb. For example, Listening to his ipod, John skiing down the slope.

As a noun, gerunds can either be the subject or the direct object of a sentence. Let’s use the verb “to read” as an example. The gerund of “to read” is “reading” and it can be used as a subject in a sentence like
Reading Shakespeare is compulsory for every high school in America.
Or it can be used as a direct object in a sentence like
I enjoy reading Shakespeare in my English class. (Here, the verb is “enjoy” and the object is “reading”)

Now that you know how to use gerunds, you need to bear in mind three main types of mistakes involving gerunds.

Mistake 1
The first is the one mentioned in the first paragraph – the presence of a gerund but a lack of a verb. Using the previous sentence as an example, Listening to his ipod, John studying for the SAT should be Listening to his ipod, John skiis down the slope.

This mistake is a little harder to spot when there is a modifying clause that has a verb in it. For example, Sarah walking down the street, her head bent in thought. Just because there is a verb “bent” in the sentence does not make the sentence grammatical. The main clause in the sentence is “Sarah walking down the street” and this lacks a verb. The second part, “her head bent in thought” describes Sarah and is a modifier. For the sentence to be grammatical, it would have to be Sarah walked down the street, her head bent in thought.

Test yourself with this Grockit SAT Writing question!

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SAT Writing: Excessive Wordiness

By posted February 22, 2010

Notice anything wrong with the title of this article? No, there are no spelling or grammar errors. Technically, nothing is “wrong” with the title, but it could be improved: remove the word “excessive,” and the title will no longer be wordy. I know what you’re thinking. How can a single adjective–and a seemingly appropriate one at that–add wordiness? Simple. The word “excessive” is unnecessary and redundant. Since “wordiness,” by its very definition, denotes an excess of words, the phrase “excessive wordiness” means “an excess of an excess of words,” which is pretty ridiculous. This is the way you should be thinking to catch wordiness on the SAT.

Nearly every Improving Sentences question will contain an answer choice guilty of wordiness. It is your job to pick the most concise and clear answer choice that retains all necessary information. This point cannot be emphasized enough. Somehow, many students believe that, when it comes to writing, more is better. This fallacy may have been inadvertently encouraged by minimum word counts for school essays. If you happen to believe in this fallacy, I’m here to disabuse and enlighten you.

Wordiness comes in the form of unnecessary words (words that can be deleted to aid the clarity of the sentence), redundancies (words that simply repeat what has already been stated), and clunky phrases that could be easily reduced to single words.

See if you can improve this sentence from SAT Writing!

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Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement on the SAT

By posted December 3, 2009

For Sentence Error ID questions, we know that we should automatically search for the subject of the sentence and its corresponding verb, but we should also look for pronouns and their antecedents. An antecedent is the noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers. In the simple sentence, “John forgot to finish his homework,” John is the antecedent of the possessive pronoun his. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in person, gender, and number; for the SAT, though, you only have to worry about pronoun number.

Errors with pronoun number are very common in English.

Here’s a mind-blowing example of a common pronoun/number error:

ex. Is everyone happy with their grades?

Can you spot the error? If you can, you’re probably in the minority of English speakers. If corrected, this sentence would read:

ex. Is everyone happy with his or her grades?

Why should the possessive plural pronoun their become the possessive singular pronoun his or her? Simple: “Everyone,” believe it or not, is a singular pronoun. After all, do we say “everyone is happy” or “everyone are happy?” Though it seems to refer to a whole bunch of individuals, “everyone” is really saying “every one,” or in other words, “each individual.” So the next time you’re stuck on the pronoun/number problem with “everyone,” go ahead and substitute “each individual” for this tricky pronoun. Sure, it’s painfully robotic, but does this sentence—“Is each individual happy with his or her grades”—slightly ease the burden on your brain?

Try this sentence error SAT writing question!

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Improving Paragraphs in SAT Writing: Using Parallel Structure

By posted November 19, 2009

How do you improve this sentence?

1. Today at the beach we will most likely skateboard, play Frisbee, and to eat hot dogs.

a) As it is
b) Today at the beach we will probably find time to skateboard, playing Frisbee and to eat hot dogs.
c) Today at the beach we will most likely skateboard, play Frisbee, and eating hot dogs.
d) Today at the beach we will most likely skateboard, play Frisbee, and eat hot dogs.
e) At the beach today, we most likely skateboard, play Frisbee and eat hot dogs.

The first thing I recognize when I read this sentence is that something is definitely off with one of the verbs. Before I even knew about parallel structure, I could probably tell you that D is right; it is “eating” and not “to eat.” It’s almost a rule of thumb, if you have a group of verbs they should be of the same tense. But what does that mean exactly?

It just sounds right? Right. Well, let’s be honest, there’s more to it. Parallel construction means that whether it’s a group of verbs, adverbs, clauses, nouns, adjectives, or any other part of speech, if you are listing, they have to be consistent. Let’s look at an example. Let’s combine these two sentences:

Try this SAT writing improving paragraphs question!

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The SAT Writing: Improving Paragraphs and Finding the Main Idea

By posted November 2, 2009

During the SAT Writing there is one part, merely six or so questions that will ask you to improve a paragraph. While this will be similar to improving sentences, which you may already have seen, there are some key differences. The test makers expect you to know more than grammar but paragraph structure and organization of ideas—topics I will address in this blog post. There is no need to be nervous; if you are comfortable with writing an essay, you can just as easily rewrite one.

Here are some strategies. Let’s hit the easy stuff first: read the entire passage. If you are stuck on an improving paragraphs question, it will serve you well to have read the passage so you can work with the context the test makers give you. Find the main idea. This is so important to understanding any question on this section that I am bolding it. What sentence sums up your passage? Write it down somewhere so you can remember.

Next, read the questions. Each improving paragraphs question will ask you to reread a selection of the text, maybe a few lines. Pay special attention to these lines. Now read the lines around that selection. Now you are ready to answer the question.

Try this SAT improving paragraphs practice question!

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SAT Fragments and Run-Ons: How To Spot ‘Em & Fix ‘Em!

By posted October 22, 2009

Before we can spot Fragments and Run-Ons it’s important to understand a few key definitions when it comes to sentence construction. A clause is a group of words with a verb and a subject. An independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence. A dependent or subordinate clause cannot. Let’s look at a couple of quick examples:

Independent clause: I love studying for the SAT.

Dependent clause: Because I use Grockit.

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