You cannot write a cohesive essay without understanding and utilizing the paragraph properly. Essentially, a paragraph is made up of two or more sentences focused on a single topic. Each paragraph should have an identifiable topic sentence followed by supporting sentences with clearly defined points. Academic writing, for the most part, requires an author’s argument to be made as clearly and concisely as possible. As long as you keep track of proper paragraph structure, this is easy to accomplish—just remember, one topic per paragraph. It’s often helpful to write a quick outline to keep track of your argument and supporting points, especially in time-sensitive situations like exams.
If the subject is singular (one), there should be a singular verb, and if the subject is plural (more than one), there should be a plural verb. Below is a basic example you have probably learned in school:
Singular: Jack runs down the street. (Jack is a singular subject, and runs is a singular verb)
Plural: Jack and Jill run down the street. (Jack and Jill is a plural subject, and run is a plural verb)
Incorrect: The jury are convinced that John is guilty.
Although the subject jury refers to more than one person, as a collective noun, we take jury as a singular subject.
Correct: The jury is convinced that John is guilty.
Some examples of other collective nouns to look out for are: team, group, committee, crowd, class, and panel. Note that multiple groups (panels, juries, groups, etc.) are used with plural verbs.
Prepositions are not used when identifying whether or not a subject is plural or singular. Instead, the head noun, or the noun being modified, tells us which verb form to use. Examples are,
Incorrect: The group of members are extremely passionate.
Correct: The group of members is extremely passionate.
Incorrect: The book with five chapters are well written.
Correct: The book with five chapters is well written.
As you can see, if you cross out the prepositional phrase altogether, you can easily identify the subject. By crossing out the prepositional phrase, you can quickly simplify the sentence and make the errors more apparent.
You should always be able to circle a pronoun and draw an arrow to the exact person, place, or thing being referenced. Practice connecting pronouns to their nouns. For example,
Even though John was tired, he still went running.
Here, we can see that the he being referenced is John. Look out for ambiguous pronoun (pronouns in the presence of more than one possible noun):
Incorrect: John, Jim, and Carl were running when he got tired and stopped.
Because there is more than one possible he, we cannot logically deduce who got tired and stopped. Instead, a correct answer would be one that specifies a specific individual.
Correct: John, Jim, and Carl were running when Jim got tired and stopped.
Along with using ambiguous pronouns to test your knowledge, make sure the pronoun agrees with the number of nouns being referenced.
Incorrect: The mile timesof the students in Jim’s class were higher than that of Carl’s class.
As we learned above, prepositional phrases do not make a subject singular or plural. Here, we cross out the prepositional phrase to clearly see that the pronoun that is used in reference to the noun mile times. Since mile times are a plural subject, the pronoun must also be plural. To correct the error, the sentence should read:
Correct: The mile timesof the students in Jim’s class were higher than those of Carl’s class.
Remember that I, me, you, she, her, it, and him are singular and we, us, you, they, and them are plural.
One common error is the use of dangling and misplaced modifiers. Exactly what they sound like, modifiers are words or phrases that modify another word to give the reader more information. Remember that whenever you see a modifier, especially at the beginning of a sentence, remember that the word directly following the comma must be the word being modified. Errors would typically be as follows,
Incorrect: A very precocious young boy, engineering came easily to Billy.
Because the word being modified must appear directly after the modifier, the modifying phrase (A very precocious young boy) is incorrectly referring to computer engineering. To fix the error, the sentence should read,
Correct: A very precocious young boy, Billy found engineering easy.
Along with these modifiers at the beginning of a sentence, look out for modifiers used in incorrect or ambiguous positions. For example,
Incorrect: The basketball player announced his plans to train harder during the meeting.
In this incorrect usage, the modifying phrase (during the meeting) is placed in a position that causes ambiguity. Is the basketball player going to train harder during that specific meeting? Is he going to train harder during the season? To correct the error, we need to move the modifier to clarify what is happening.
Correct: During the meeting, the basketball player announced his plans to train harder.
Here, we can clearly see that the basketball player is the word being modified, and he intends to train harder in general, rather than at the meeting. Because idiomatically we usually accept both sentences as the same thing, it is especially important to pay close attention to the use of modifiers. You should always be able to circle a modifier and draw an arrow to the exact word being modified.
A sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. Put more simply, a noun and a verb phrase. The SAT® Writing and Language test wants to challenge your knowledge of what constitutes a sentence with something called a comma splice. This occurs when two grammatically complete sentences are combined with just a comma. For example,
Incorrect: Pandas are my favorite animal, they are so cute.
Each of these statements contains a noun (Panda/They) and a verb statement (are my…/are so), and are therefore complete on their own. To correct the error, each main clause must be separated by a period, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction.
Correct: Pandas are my favorite animal. They are so cute.
Correct: Pandas are my favorite animal; they are so cute.
Correct: Pandas are my favorite animal, for they are so cute.
With this knowledge, we can better understand our next essential grammatical rule.
Although many people associate run-ons with wordiness and fragments with shortness, both are simply clauses that don’t follow the grammatical rules for complete sentences. For a sentence to be complete, it must have at least one main clause (subject and a predicate), and all main clauses must be connected with the proper punctuation. As seen in the previous rule, this means that main clauses must be connected by semicolons, or coordinating conjunctions and commas. Similarly, a sentence is a fragment if there is no main clause.
Run-On: My wife comes from the city and I come from the Suburbs.
Fragment: My wife coming from the city and I from the suburbs.
Correct: My wife comes from the city, and I come from the suburbs.
To ensure a sentence is grammatically correct, all verb tenses and grammatical structures must remain parallel. Put simply, this means that words must be repeated to maintain a pattern. As this is a very common error type, an example that may occur is:
Incorrect: John wanted to buy a new car, partly because of his need to have a reliable vehicle, but mostly because of his greatly desiring to look cool.
Correct: John wanted to buy a new car, partly because of his need to have a reliable vehicle, but mostly because of his desire to look cool.
As you can see in the first example, the sentence is linked with the conjunction but and the phrase because of is repeated. To maintain the parallel structure, the noun phrase his greatly wanting has to match the noun phrase structure of his need. Along with word structure, verb tense must remain consistent throughout the sentence.
Incorrect: John loved running with his friends, swimming in the ocean, and walk through the valley.
Correct: John loved running with his friends, swimming in the ocean, and walking through the valley.
One of the most common, but easiest error-types to identify is the use of a coordinator without its matching word. Because the first coordinator requires its pair word to be complete, you should circle the word anytime you see it and quickly identify if its partner word is present in the sentence.
..or – Either John or Jim is the club leader.
..and – Both John and Jim are funny.
not so much…as – He’s not so much funny as he is annoying.
just as…so
..nor
not only…but(also)
at once…and
The grammar rules regarding homophones cause problems for both native and non-native English speakers. Mixing up words that sound the same but have different meanings is the most common spelling mistake authors make. The list of homophones in the English language is surprisingly extensive, but the following words cause the most confusion:
Affect is a verb, as in “The music affected her emotionally.”
Effect is a noun, as in “The most common effect of sleep deprivation is the constant urge to nap.”
Than is used when comparing two things, as in “He was faster than his coworkers at completing projects.”
Then denotes a subsequent action or time, as in “Then, she put on her coat and went home.”
There indicates a position or location, as in “She would rather sit over there.”
Their is a possessive pronoun, as in “They loved their dog, even when he ate their shoes.”
They’re is a contraction of the verbal phrase “they are,” as in “They’re all going to the concert later.”
Your is a possessive pronoun, as in “I can’t stand your taste in movies.”
You’re is a contraction of the verbal phrase “you are,” as in “You’re going to regret eating all those chocolates.”
Whose is a possessive pronoun, as in “Whose car is blocking my driveway?”
Who’s is a contraction of the verbal phrase “who is,” as in “Who’s going to the restaurant later?”
To is a preposition, or part of the infinitive expression of a verb, as in “She was heading to the gym after work” (preposition) or “She wanted to go home” (verb).
Too is an adverb, as in “There was too much junk food at the Christmas party” or “Although he’d already had a brownie, he decided to eat a gingerbread cookie, too.”
Two is a number, as in “She couldn’t image having two babies at the same time.”
Accept is a verb, as in “Please accept my apologies.”
Except is most often used as a preposition, as in “I love all kinds of fruit except bananas.” It can also be used as a conjunction, as in “She would have purchased the fruit, except that she left her purse at home.”
Unfortunately, the easiest way to keep these types of words straight when a spell-checker isn’t available is memorization. Consider reading over this list of most commonly misused homophones before your next exam!
Albert Team. “10 Essential Grammar Rules for SAT® Writing.” Albert Resources, 21 July 2020, www.albert.io/blog/10-essential-
grammar-rules-for-sat-writing/.
Macfadyen, Sarah. “The Most Important Grammar Rules to Remember.” Inklyo.com, 2 July 2019, www.inklyo.com/most- important-grammar-rules/.