He is a former silicon valley freelance writer for tech magazines, corporate trainer for international bankers, and college english teacher. Visit his web site at w.tctutoring.net. in american education, particularly at the high school level, grammar is a lost art. The closest most high school students get to any real appreciation of syntax is by studying a foreign language like spanish, where the subjunctive, for example, is used extensively. Facetious or not, twain has had a lot of company over the years as a grammar hater. This is true not only of the man on the street or the typical high school student but also english teachers, most of whom avoid the topic like the plague.

High school kids are pretty much left to their own devices when it comes to parsing parts of speech. All this can be disastrous when it comes to preparing for the writing portion of the sat. It's not bad enough that kids have to write a two page essay from scratch for the new sat they also have two sections of grammar to contend with, one called identifying sentence errors and the other called improving sentences. In the improving sentences part of the sat, a sentence is presented along with several variations.

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The trick is to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, grammatically speaking. And tricks are exactly what i teach my students to perform in order to ace the grammar section of the sat. having taught both grammar and composition in college, i've simplified a large part of the complexity of english grammar down to 8 main points that students find easy to grasp. Here are the points: 1 leaking oil misplaced modifiers i call the first rule leaking oil in order to give students a stark visual to hold onto.

More technically, the rule deals with modifiers that point to the wrong noun in the sentence. When a sentence has a subordinated lead in like this, i tell students to make sure that the first noun after the comma points back to the action being described. The sentence should read: leaking oil, the car was fixed by the mechanic. To put this concept into play with sat style questions, consider the following examples and choose the best way to improve the sentence: a working overtime, the industrial facility was populated by hundreds of technicians. D the busy technicians at the industrial facility were the ones who worked overtime e working overtime, busy technicians populated the industrial facility. Answer c is unnecessarily conditional and d has the gratuitous phrase were the ones. Only e has the correct noun, busy technicians, following the introductory lead in.

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2 matching pairs subject verb agreement the second rule has to do with matching singular subjects with singular verbs and plural subjects with plural verbs. The college board tries to trick students by interposing prepositional phrases between the subject and verb, sort of like stuffing styrofoam peanuts into a fedex gift box. for example: the harmful effects of insulin resistance on the metabolic system is well known. Notice how the unnecessary prepositional phrases of insulin resistance and on the metabolic system subvert the true relationship between the subject and verb. The sentence should read: the harmful effects of insulin resistance on the metabolic system are well known.

To put this concept into play with sat style questions, consider the following examples and choose the best way to improve the sentence: a each of the 5,0 spectators are cheering wildly at the game. To analyze this correctly, ignore the prepositional phrase in the sentence of the 5,0 spectators and focus exclusively on the subject, which, in this case, is each. since each is singular, the verb must also be singular. This technique for parsing sentences is both extremely powerful and easy, once you get the hang of it. I have my students do practice test after practice test in order for the techniques to sink in. 3 avoid alien beings use active verbs in the real world, as opposed to the artificial world of the sat, it's ok to use being in sentences that are well constructed. However, on the improving sentences section of the sat, being is always the wrong choice. To drive this point home, take a look at the following sentences: a jacob has remained in political office for several terms because of being the most popular candidate.

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B being the most popular candidate, jacob has remained in political office for several terms. C jacob has remained in political office for several terms, being the most popular candidate. D jacob, the most popular candidate, has remained in political office for several terms. Now ask yourself this question: which of these sentences is the most straightforward and direct? the correct answer is d because it gets its point across simply and directly.

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On the sat grammar section, sentences can always be improved by eliminating the word being. Which brings me to my next rule, really a corollary to the alien being rule. 4 shortest point economy of expression in english, especially american english, brevity is the heart and soul of popular expression. Short, cryptic slogans like just do it and no pain, no gain are part of the cultural landscape because of the direct way they convey information. Take a look at the following sentences and determine which one says the most with the fewest number of words.