CheapLit: Free ebook sample of "Writing Skills" by mack leon

_MAC

^WRITING

^SKILLS

Old versus New Minor changes have been made to the Math and Verbal sections. Math topics have been expanded to include expo- nential growth, absolute value, and functional notation. Familiar topics, such as linear functions, manipulations with exponents, and properties of tangent lines, are given greater emphasis. Skills such as estimation and num- ber sense will be tested in new formats. The Verbal section is now known as Critical Reading, and has added short reading passages while eliminating analogies. The biggest change to the new SAT is the addition of a Writing section; however, all of the material in this section isn’t entirely new. The Writing section has three parts; the first two are multiple choice, and the last is essay writing. You’ll have 35 minutes to complete the multiple-choice section, which is broken down into 25- and 10- minute parts. It contains the same structure and content as the “old” SAT II Writing Test (which was optional,
	Grammar and Usage
The grammar and usage issues you’ll most often encounter are: ■ agreement ■ pronoun case ■ consistency ■ idiom ■ parallel structure ■ word choice ■ verb form ■ adjectives and adverbs

We began this chapter with Identifying Sentence Here’s an example: Errors for one important reason: Many of the gram- mar and usage issues prevalent in these questions will “Eat, drink, and be merry,” is a label associated with also come up in Improving Sentences and Improving a b Paragraphs questions. If the review that follows isn’t Greek philosopher Epicurus, but like most catchy enough for you to fully understand each possible error, study those you still find confusing at greater length slogans, they simplify what is actually a rich and with a grammar book such as Goof-Proof Grammar c d (LearningExpress, 2002). complex message. No error. e Agreement Notice how the phrase like most catchy slogans Expect at least one of your Improving Sentence Errors can mislead you. If you assume slogans is the subject, questions to be about agreement, meaning the balance then the pronoun they and the verb simplify seem of sentence elements such as subjects and verbs and correct—they agree with the plural subject. But subjects pronouns and antecedents. (Recall that an antecedent are never in prepositional phrases, so slogans can’t be is the noun that a pronoun replaces.) To agree, singu- the subject of the verb simplify. Look again at the sen- lar subjects require singular verbs, and plural subjects tence. What is simplifying? Not the slogans, but the require plural verbs. Likewise, singular nouns can be label “Eat, drink, and be merry”—a singular noun. replaced only by singular pronouns, and plural nouns Thus, the pronoun must be it and the verb must be sim- require plural pronouns. plifies to agree with the subject, so choice c contains the To make this type of question tricky, you’ll often error and is therefore the correct answer. find a “filler” phrase between the subject and verb or noun and pronoun. The intention is to distract you; the more space between the subject and verb or noun and pronoun, the more difficult it can be to determine agreement.

Consistency

Just as sentences must be balanced, they must also be consistent. And like errors in agreement, errors in con- sistency involve verb and pronoun usage. For example,

if a sentence begins in the past tense, it must stay in the past tense. Pronouns need to be consistent in person and number. A shift from the singular I to the plural we, for example, can leave the reader wondering just who

is doing what in the sentence.

Here are two examples of errors in consistency from the practice tests:

Keeping your room uncluttered is easy when you

a

make it a habit to spend ten minutes a day just

b c

putting things back where they belonged. No error.

d e

Think twice before sending potentially computer-

a

clogging e-mail attachments such as pictures and

b

videos; if the recipient is low on disk space, or uses a

c

dial-up service to get their e-mail, he or she won’t

d

appreciate the gesture. No error.

e

The first sentence is in the present tense as evi- denced by the present participles keeping and putting, and the present make. But it ends with the past tense belonged. To be consistent, that last verb needs to be changed to the present tense belong. In the second sentence, the author correctly uses the singular pronoun he or she to replace the singular noun recipient. But she then incorrectly uses the plural pronoun their to refer to the same antecedent. The use of his or her would correct the error.

Parallel Structure

Parallel structure involves pairs and lists of words and phrases. Both items in a pair, and all items in a list

_{need to follow the same grammatical pattern. If you’re}

writing about your friend’s favorite leisure activities, you wouldn’t say, “Juan loves skating and to read.” It sounds awkward because the items in the pair aren’t the same grammatically. The first is a participle (skating), and the second is an infinitive (to read). Even if the names of the verb tenses aren’t familiar to you, you can see that one of the two needs to be changed in order to maintain parallel structure. You could change skating to to skate, or to read to reading. Either way, you’ll get parallel structure.

Here, again, are examples from the practice tests: One of the best ways to prepare for a career in

_a

journalism is to become an informed citizen by

b

reading a variety of newspapers, watching

documentaries and televised news programs, and

c

you should read books about world leaders, politics,

d

and grassroots movements. No error.

e

This sentence offers a list of three things one can do to become an informed citizen: reading, watching, and you should read. Notice how the third item does not follow the same grammatical pattern as the first. It should begin with a verb in participial form, reading. You should is unnecessary and should be eliminated.

The more I read about deep sea fshing, the more

a b

it makes me want to get out there and try it. No error.

c d e

In this example, the phrases after the words the more I read are not grammatical equivalents. It makes me should be matched with I want to.

Verb Form

Verbs are the “meat” of a sentence—they express what the subject is doing, thinking, or feeling. Correct verb form is essential to sentence clarity, and you can expect to find at least one question with a verb form issue. Here are some of the common verb errors found on the SAT.

^■ Incorrectly conjugated irregular verbs. About

150 English verbs are irregular; that is, they do

not follow the standard rules for changing tense.

_{We can divide these irregular verbs into three}

categories:

irregular verbs with the same past and past par- ticiple forms

irregular verbs with three distinct forms irregular verbs with the same present and past

_{participle forms}

The following table lists the most common irreg- ular verbs.

PRESENT	PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
deal	dealt	dealt
keep	kept	kept
kneel	knelt	knelt
leave	left	left
mean	meant	meant
send	sent	sent
sleep	slept	slept
spend	spent	spent
bring	brought	brought
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
fight	fought	fought
teach	taught	taught
think	thought	thought
feed	fed	fed
flee	fled	fled
find	found	found
grind	ground	ground
THREE DISTINCT FORMS:
begin	began	begun
ring	rang	rung
sing	sang	sung
spring	sprang	sprung
swim	swam	swum
do	did	done
go	went	gone
am	was	been
is	was	been

PRESENT	PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
see	saw	seen
drink	drank	drunk
shrink	shrank	shrunk
sink	sank	sunk
stink	stank	stunk
swear	swore	sworn
tear	tore	torn
wear	wore	worn
blow	blew	blown
draw	drew	drawn
fly	flew	flown
grow	grew	grown
know	knew	known
throw	threw	thrown
drive	drove	driven
strive	strove	striven
choose	chose	chosen
rise	rose	risen
break	broke	broken
speak	spoke	spoken
fall	fell	fallen
shake	shook	shaken
take	took	taken
forget	forgot	forgotten
get	got	gotten
give	gave	given
forgive	forgave	forgiven
forsake	forsook	forsaken

PRESENT	PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
hide	hid	hidden
ride	rode	ridden
write	wrote	written
freeze	froze	frozen
steal	stole	stolen

_{SAME PRESENT AND PAST PARTICIPLE FORMS:}

come	came	come
overcome	overcame	overcome
run	ran	run

_{In English, as in many other languages, the essential verb to be is highly irregular:}

SUBJECT	PRESENT	PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
I	am	was	have been
you	are	were	have been
he, she, it	is	was	has been
we	are	were	have been
they	are	were	have been

_{Here’s an example of an irregular verb question:}

Eliza laid down on her bed to rest while the rest of

a b c

her family enjoyed the appetizing meal prepared by

d

her grandmother. No error.

e

_{Lay and lie are commonly confused. To lay means}

to place something down, and to lie means to recline. Obviously in this sentence, the latter verb is required; however, to make things even more confusing, the cor- rect past tense form of to lie is lay.

^■ Incorrect tense. If there’s an error in tense, the sentence will provide enough context for you to determine the tense the verb(s) should be in. For example:

_{From 1947 to 1956, thousands of scrolls and}

fragments of ancient manuscripts has been found in

a

caves on the shore of the Dead Sea, including early

b c

copies of biblical books in Hebrew and Aramaic.

d

No error.

e

Has been is the present perfect form of the verb is. However, the first phrase, From 1947 to 1956, tells us that the action took place in the past. This sentence requires the simple past tense, were.

^■ Missing subjunctive. Most verbs are in the indicative mood, meaning that they simply indi- cate an action, thought, or feeling. The subjunc- tive mood is used to express something that is wished for or that is untrue. It is formed with the past tense or past perfect tense (using the helping verb were). But we often forget to use it, both in speech and in writing. When a sentence starts

with if, I wish, or It would have been, it’s probably in the subjunctive mood.

It would have been nice if you brought more money

a b

with you because these tickets are very expensive.

c d

No error.

e

The clause it would have been tells us that the money isn’t there, it’s just wished for, so the verb needs to be subjunctive: if you had brought.

Pronoun Case

Personal pronouns have two main forms: the subjective and objective cases. This simply means that we use one form when the pronoun is acting as a subject and another form when the pronoun is acting as an object. Expect to see a couple of sentence errors involving con- fusion of subjective and objective cases.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE

CASE CASE

I me you you

he, she, it him, her, it we us

they them

who whom

Here’s an example that uses a distracter:

The difference between you and me is that you get

a b

your best work done in the morning while I

c

perform better in the evening. No error.

d e

You and me is not the subject of the sentence (dif- ference is), but rather the object of the preposition between. Even if it might sound wrong, me, the objec- tive form of I, is correct.

Another common sentence error involves a pro- noun following the word than. Because the than + (pro)noun construction requires a verb (even if that verb is not articulated), you must use the subjective form of the pronoun: I am taller than he [is].

_{You’ll probably find at least one multiple-choice}

question that tests your ability to differentiate between

who and whom. Who is the subjective form, and whom

is the objective. If you’re unclear about which to use, substitute the words he and him for who or whom. If he

is correct, you need who (both subjective case) and if

him is correct, you need whom (both objective case).

Here’s an example:

The physical and psychological unrest of the working

a

class was explored often in the plays of Arthur Miller,

b

for who the subject of the American Dream, and its

c

achievability for ordinary Americans, never got stale.

d

No error.

e

Who is the object of the preposition for, but it is in the subjective case. Correct it by changing it to the objective form whom. If you were unclear about whether this was the error, you could have recast the sentence to try he or him in place of who:

The subject of the American Dream never got stale for (he/him).

Obviously, him is correct.

Idiom

Idioms are expressions peculiar to a particular lan- guage, whose meanings cannot be discerned by defin- ing them word for word. What downward movement, for example, happens when one “falls in love”? On what is one perched on when “sitting pretty”? There are thousands of English idioms, most of which are very familiar to you, even though you may not have known they were idioms. The two most common errors you’re likely to encounter are those involving prepositional pairs (e.g., take care of, according to) and the use of infinitives and gerunds (e.g., want to meet, practice swimming).

Since idioms are typically learned through con- versation, you’ll probably be able to hear idiom errors in the Identifying Sentence Errors multiple-choice questions. Listen carefully to each sentence as you read it, and identify the error.

1. This year’s model is different than last year’s.

2. She has difficulty in the Advanced Placement

History class.

3. The color choices are typical for that artist.

These errors should have sounded wrong to you: (1) different than should be different from, (2) difficulty in should be difficulty with, (3) typical for should be typical of. If the subject of prepositions is confusing, you’ll need to do some memorizing. Idioms are idiosyncratic—there are no easy rules for remembering them! Following is a list of idiomatic preposition uses that often appear on the SAT.

_{agree on an amendment}

agree to do something agree with someone

argue about or for a proposal argue with a person

apologize for an error approve of a change bored with small talk

compare to (when you are showing the likes of two things or putting them in same cate- gory)

compare with (when highlighting similarities or differences)

concerned about or with an issue contrast with (when noting differences)

correspond to or with something (meaning to relate)

_{correspond with a person (meaning to}

communicate)

differ from something

independent of someone or something interested in a subject

interfere in someone’s business interfere with an activity

similar to something

stand by or with someone stand for a cause

stand on an issue succeed in an endeavor wait at a place

wait by the phone wait for someone

wait in the snowstorm wait on a customer work with me

_{The other type of idiom error you’re likely to see}

is the improper use of infinitives (to + verb: to water) and gerunds (verb + ing: watering). Some verbs must take one or the other, and a small handful take both. Your ear will probably hear this type of error. Listen for the non-idiomatic usages in the following sentences:

1. I spend two hours each day practicing to swim.

2. We had fun pretending being rock stars.

3. My father resents to be asked for money all the

_{Here are the errors you should have heard: (1)}

practicing to swim should be practicing swimming, (2) pretending being should be pretending to be, and (3) resents to be should be resents being. As with preposi- tions, if you’re confused about when to use gerunds and infinitives, you’ll need to do some memorizing.

		VERBS THAT TAKE
VERBS THAT	VERBS THAT	EITHER INFINITIVES
TAKE INFINITIVES	TAKE GERUNDS	OR GERUNDS
be determined	deny	cease
beg	detest	continue
care	discuss	hate
claim	dislike	hesitate
decide	enjoy	intend
expect	escape	like
have	finish	love
hope	imagine	prefer
learn	keep	start
manage	mind
mean	miss
need	postpone
offer	practice
plan	put off
pretend	quit
promise	recall
refuse	recollect
say	resent
tend	resist
try	risk
wait	suggest
want	tolerate
wish	understand

Word Choice

Many students breathed a sigh of relief when the Col- lege Board announced that it was dropping Analogy questions from the SAT. These questions appraised vocabulary, and were thought to be among the hardest on the test. However, they’ve been replaced by a hand- ful of Identifying Sentence Errors questions involving word choice. Here’s where you’ll need to show you know the difference between affect and effect, whether or weather, and fewer and less.

_{There are two categories of words that are most}

problematic: confused words (homonyms that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings) and misused words (pairs so often used incorrectly the errors sound acceptable to most people). Read through the lists of some of the most frequently tested words, noting any you’re not sure of.

CONFUSED WORDS

_{WORD DEFINITION}

allude (verb) to refer to something not specifically mentioned

elude (verb) to escape notice or detection

ascent (noun) the act of climbing or rising

_{assent (verb) to agree or accept a proposal or opinion}

assure (verb) to make certain (assure someone)

ensure (verb) to make certain

insure (verb) to secure from harm; to secure life or property in case of loss

beside (adj.) next to besides (adv.) in addition to

bibliography (noun) list of writings

biography (noun) a life story

capital (noun) money invested; a town or city where the government sits capitol (noun) a government building

choose (verb) to select

chose (verb) the past tense of choose

cite (verb) to acknowledge; to quote as a reference sight (noun) the ability to see; vision

_{site (noun) a place or location}

complement (noun) match

compliment (noun, verb) praise; to give praise

consul (noun) an official appointed by the government to live in a foreign city and attend to the interests of the official’s country

council (noun) a group of people called together to provide advice

_{counsel (noun, verb) advice; to give advice}

continual (adj.) taking place in close succession

continuous (adj.) without break or let up

CONFUSED WORDS

_{WORD DEFINITION}

cooperation (noun) assistance; help

corporation (noun) type of business organization

decent (adj.) well mannered descent (noun) decline; fall dissent (noun) disagreement

desert (noun) arid, sandy region

dessert (noun) sweet served after a meal

disburse (verb) to pay disperse (verb) to spread out

disinterested (adj.) impartial; no strong opinion either way

uninterested (adj.) don’t care

elicit (verb) to stir up illicit (adj.) illegal

envelop (verb) to surround; to cover completely

envelope (noun) flat paper container for letters or other documents

farther (adv.) beyond further (adj.) additional

flack (noun, verb) press agent (noun); to act as a press agent (verb)

flak (noun) criticism

forth (adv.) forward; onward

_{fourth (adj.) next in number after the third}

hear (verb) to perceive by the ear

here (adv.) in this or at this place

hoard (verb) to collect and keep horde (noun) a huge crowd

imply (verb) to hint or suggest

infer (verb) to assume; to deduce

CONFUSED WORDS

_{WORD DEFINITION}

loose (adj.) not restrained; not fastened

lose (verb) to fail to win; to be deprived of

loath (adj.) reluctant

_{loathe (verb) to feel hatred for}

medal (noun) a badge of honor

meddle (verb) to interfere

metal (noun) a mineral substance

passed (verb) the past tense of past

_{past (adj.) finished; gone by}

personal (adj.) individual

personnel (noun) employees

principal (adj.) main

principal (noun) person in charge principle (noun) standard

quiet (adj.) still; calm

quit (verb) to stop; to discontinue

quite (adv.) very; fairly; positively

stationary (adj.) not moving stationery (noun) writing paper

taught (verb) the past tense of teach

taut (adj.) tight

than (conj., prep.) in contrast to then (adv.) next

their (pronoun) belonging to them

there (adv.) in a place

they’re contraction for they are

CONFUSED WORDS

_{WORD DEFINITION}

to (prep.) in the direction of

too (adv.) also; excessively

two (adj.) the number after one

weather (noun, verb) atmospheric conditions; to last or ride out whether (conj.) if it be the case; in either case

who (pronoun) substitute for he, she, or they

whom (pronoun) substitute for him, her, or them

_{your (pronoun) belonging to you}

you’re contraction for you are

MISUSED WORDS

_{WORD WHEN TO USE IT}

allude used when a reference is made indirectly or covertly

refer used when something is named or otherwise mentioned directly

amount used when you cannot count the items to which you are referring, and when referring to singular nouns

number used when you can count the items to which you are referring, and when referring to plural nouns

anxious nervous

eager enthusiastic, or looking forward to something

among used when comparing or referring to three or more people or things between used for two people or things

bring moving something toward the speaker

take moving something away from the speaker

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