When preparing for the SAT in the fall or spring of their junior year, students may find themselves, for the first time in their lives, studying grammar. The writing section of the SAT is challenging; it is comprised of an essay and a multiple choice language section, in which students must identify sentence errors, improve sentences and improve paragraphs. Therefore, studying specific grammar errors, such as sentence fragments and misplaced modifiers, is an important part of SAT preparation.
Avoiding Sentence Fragments on the SAT
Contrary to popular belief, a fragment is not necessarily a short sentence. For instance, “she ran” is actually a complete sentence. Further, a sentence can fill three typed lines and still be a fragment. Why? It may not contain the necessary components to qualify as a complete sentence; that is, a sentence must contain both a subject and a predicate as well as express a complete thought. When preparing for the SAT, students must complete practice exercises provide by the College Board or another test preparation company to learn how to avoid sentence fragments.
Here are two sentence fragments.
- While some students may feel they have sufficiently studied throughout their high school career and others are just now beginning to take an interest in academics.
- Because it was the time of year when most students longed to be outside.
Both fragments may, at first glance, appear to be complete. However, neither sentence expresses a complete thought. If a student deleted “while” from the first sentence, and “because” from the second sentence, each would be complete. As an alternative and to create more complex sentences, a student might instead add an independent clause after each existing fragment. The new, grammatically correct sentences might read as follows:
- While some students may feel they have sufficiently studied throughout their high school career and others are just now beginning to take an interest in academics, all students should plan to graduate from high school.
- Because it was the time of year when most students longed to be outside, school administrators decided to initiate a field trip.
Students need to learn to identify fragments as well as edit sentences to avoid them entirely on the SAT writing section.
Avoiding Misplaced Modifiers
A modifier is a group of words used to describe a noun. In order for a modifier to effectively enhance a sentence, it must be situated as close as possible to the noun which it modifies. Otherwise, the meaning of the sentence will often get misconstrued. The following examples reveal misplaced modifiers.
- Dancing for nearly an hour, the dance floor was filled with whirling couples.
- The boy, growing colder each day, decided that November was his favorite month of the year.
In the first sentence, it appears that the dance floor is doing the dancing. The modifying phrase, "dancing for nearly an hour," should be placed closer to the noun it intends to modify, "whirling couples." A revised sentence may look like this:
- The dance floor was filled with whirling couples, who danced for nearly an hour.
In the second sentence, the boy sounds sick, as he seems to be growing colder each day. The modifying phrase, "growing colder each day," should be placed closer to the word, “November”. While several revisions are possible, here is one correct alternative.
- The boy decided that November, growing colder each day, was his favorite month of the year.
On the SAT, students may be expected to select an appropriate revision for a sentence containing a misplaced modifier or simply to identify the error in a sentence.
These are only two common grammar errors found on the SAT. Students need to learn to avoid fragments and misplaced modifiers in to successfully complete the multiple choice writing section on the SAT as well as write the SAT essay. When high school students can successfully write complex sentences which avoid these common grammatical errors, they will be one step closer to an impressive test score. Once again, advanced preparation is key.
Thadra Petkus - Thadra Petkus is currently a freelance writer, English teacher and mentor. Although she has taught students from age two through ...
