SAT Writing Cram

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Contents 1 The SAT Writing Cram Sheet 2 SAT Writing: Grammar Rules to Remember 2.1 Subject/Verb Agreement 2.2 Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement and Ambiguity 2.3 Tense and Conjugation Errors 2.4 Adjective and Modifier Errors 2.5 Parallelism 2.6 Some final grammar tips 3 Essay Tips 4 Mastery of Language Tips 5 Good luck! 6 See Also

[edit section] The SAT Writing Cram Sheet

Before you attempt the SAT, you may want or even need to study some tips about the SAT Writing section. Many say that the SAT Writing section is probably the easiest on the test and therefore can contribute the most points to your cumulative score. Below are some tips on the Improving Sentences and Identifying Sentence Errors questions as well as some general guidelines for writing effective essays.

[edit section] SAT Writing: Grammar Rules to Remember

The SAT Writing Identifying Sentence Error (ISE) section tests mainly the grammar rules listed below this paragraph. The ISE tests some of these rules along with your knowledge of English and idiomatic expressions. These rules are pretty simple and straightforward, but knowing them can seriously boost your SAT Writing score, so take note and make sure to memorize them for the actual test.

[edit section] Subject/Verb Agreement

In any sentence, the subject and the verb must absolutely agree. The sentence below exhibits good “subject/verb agreement:”

The boys like the new car.

Here, the subject is “the boys,” and the verb is “to like.” Since “the boys” is a plural subject, “like” is the plural form of the verb and is therefore correct. Likewise, the following sentence is incorrect:

Matthew cannot stands the new intern.

In this sentence, “Matthew” is the subject (singular) and “to stand” is the verb. However, the singular conjugation of “to stand” is “stands,” not “stand.” The sentence is therefore incorrect.

You may be tricked on subject/verb agreement in the following three ways (always check to see if you are being “tricked” on a particular question):

• The subject is very complex or convoluted: “The men, seeing that the tank is coming in their direction, runs away.” Here, the subject is “the men.” The verbal phrase “seeing that the tank…” is not a component of the subject, so ignore it. The verb is “to run,” and the plural form is simply “run”
• The subject seems to be singular but is actually plural, or the subject seems to be plural but is actually singular: “Everyone in our house agree that the curfew shall be set at midnight.” The subject is “everyone in our house,” which is singular even though it seems to be plural (“every one”). The verb is “to agree,” so the singular conjugation is “agrees”
• Compound subjects – If two parts of a subject are separated by the word “and,” it is a plural subject: “Bob and John like going to the beach together.”
• Separate subjects – If two parts of a subject are separated by the word “or/nor,” the subject is whichever form is closest to the verb: “Either the boys or I am going to the new building.” The subject closest to the verb is “to go,” and the form is singular.

[edit section] Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement and Ambiguity

The principle behind pronoun/antecedent agreement is that a pronoun should match its antecedent in plurality, case, and gender (where appropriate). For example, the following sentence is correct:

The man was worried that he would be late.

The pronoun “he” replaces the antecedent “the man.” A slightly confusing example is:

Watching for his boss, the man was worried he would be late.

Here, it is unclear as to whether the “he” refers to “his boss” or “the man.” In other words, there is ambiguity. This is considered an error on the ISE/IS portion of the SAT Writing, so avoid using pronouns unclearly.

Like the subject/verb agreement section, there are tricks in the pronoun/antecedent section. Watch out for these and be careful!

• Subjects that sound plural but are really singular: “Everyone has their own opinion.” The plural pronoun “their” does not match the singular antecedent “everyone.” The singular “his or her” should replace “their.”
• Pronoun case errors: “Tell me to who you gave the papers.” The pronoun “who” is a subject, but the pronoun you need should be a direct object. So, it should be “to whom.” We know that is a bit confusing, so here is a strange sentence to help you remember your case pronouns: I asked him to give it to whoever needs it the most, and so she told me to whom he gave the papers.
• Comparisons: “I am smarter than her.” Actually, if you talk like that, you’re probably not. The correct sentence is “I am smarter than she.” Since you are comparing two subjects, you need to use the subjective case “she.” An easy test: Add the word “is” after the comparison: “I am smarter than her is” sounds wrong; “I am smarter than she is” sounds right.

[edit section] Tense and Conjugation Errors

When you use a verb, you must conjugate it correctly. For example: “I goes to the pool” is wrong as it is clearly a violation of subject/verb agreement. Some verbs are not so obvious though, and require a careful study:

Tricky Verbs Table

Present Tense	Past Tense	Past Participle
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
am / is / are	was, were	been
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burn	burned, burnt	burned, burnt
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
dive	dived, dove	dived
do	did	done
drink	drank	drunk
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
flee	fled	fled
fling	flung	flung
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten, forgot
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	gotten, got
go	went	gone
have	had	had
know	knew	known
lay (put or rest)	laid	laid
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
let	let	let
lie (recline)	lay	lain
light	lighted, lit	lighted, lit
lose	lost	lost
mean	meant	meant
put	put	put
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
run	ran	run
saw	sawed	sawn
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
seek	sought	sought
sell	sold	sold
set	set	set
shoe	shod	shod
swim	swam	swum
understand	understood	understood

You should also pay attention to the following tricks:

• Conditional formation: “If I was rich, I’d throw a party.” You wouldn’t, because you can’t get rich with such bad grammar! It should be in the conditional formation: “If I WERE rich, I WOULD throw a party.”
• Perfect tenses: “Last week, I will have earned forty dollars.” The perfect future conjugation “will have …” is not appropriate for the sentence, which appears to be about the past “Last week.” It should read: “Last week, I had earned forty dollars” or something to this effect.

[edit section] Adjective and Modifier Errors

Any word that modifies the meaning of another word is a modifier. All adjectives are modifiers. For example: “The red cat is nice.” The word “red” modifies the word “cat.”

Adjective errors typically occur in the following situations:

• Incorrect comparisons: “Between Mike and I, Mike is the fastest.” Since you compare two things, you should use the “-er” form of the superlative.
• Adverb confusion: An adverb is a word that modifies another verb, adjective, or adverb. You cannot replace adverbs with adjectives. For example: “You better get there quick” is incorrect because “quick” is an adjective, but you need to describe “getting there,” which is a verb. So, you will the adverbial form “quickly”

Modifier errors typically occur in the following situations:

• Misplaced modifier: “Walking around, the rock hit me in the head unexpectedly.” Obviously, “the rock” was not “running around.” The sentence should probably read “The rock hit me in the head unexpectedly as I was running around.”
• Dangling modifier: “Hopefully, he will do better this time around.” This sentence could convey two meanings: He could be hopeful and therefore he will do better, or the speaker could hope that he does do better. At any rate, it is confusing and ambiguous. It is also incorrect.

[edit section] Parallelism

Always watch out for parallelism errors. When you see a list, think about parallelism. When you see repeated short sentences, think about parallelism. Repeated gerund forms, also indicate possible parallelism errors. You see, when one statement or element doesn’t conform to parallel structure, it makes the whole passage sound awkward (as demonstrated above).

Here are some brief parallelism non-examples:

• Verbals: “He likes to run, swim, jump, and also he can play football.” (“also he can play football” ruined it)
• Sentences: “If you believe in hope, you believe in socialism. If you believe in progress, you believe in socialism. Socialism is also believed by people who believe in God.” (guess what ruined the last one?)
• Lists: “He plays basketball, tennis, hockey, and enjoys to play volleyball.” (again, guess the error!)

[edit section] Some final grammar tips

• Watch out for questions with numbers: The words “much,” “amount,” “less,” “lots,” “more” indicate non-countable sets. The words “many,” “fewer,” and “number” indicate countable sets. For example, “Many people attended the much-anticipated dinner.”
• “Even though” is always underlined as a potential error on ISE, but it is really not an error at all! Don’t pick “Even though.” More importantly, always have a good reason for choosing an error; do not just assume that an underlined phrase is wrong because it sounds a little bit strange.

[edit section] Essay Tips

Hopefully the above grammar rules were informative and helpful to you in preparing for the test. Now, here is a brief checklist for writing the essay, step-by-step:

1. Read the question and thoroughly formulate a mental response: This means read the quote, figure out what the prompt is asking you to answer, and create an answer in your head that makes sense.

2. Write an effective introduction. Don’t be afraid to use good introduction techniques, such as quotes, statistics, hyperbole/shock, personal experiences, etc. Do not simply restate the question or use a corny, cliché-style opening. Do not attempt to sound scholarly or overly formal, but do use the right register and diction.

3. Form a thesis or motivating statement. In other words, answer the question with a strong perspective that can be supported with evidence. Do not be wishy-washy about your response. If the question is “Do you believe people are inherently good or evil?” answer that either A) all people are saints at heart or all people are sinners.

4. Support your thesis or motivating statement using strong evidence. As we said in the writing guide, you should “write like a banshee.” Do not lift your pencil. Just write all of the facts and supporting details for your prompt. If necessary, take a bit of time before you begin to write your response to come up with some mental details to include

5. Always include evidence using a C1/Evidence/C2 format. That is, first introduce the context of the evidence; second, indicate the evidence; and third, use the evidence and apply it to the point. For example: “(C1) People may sometimes do a few good things, but they are seldom from the heart. (E) A good friend of mine does a small amount of charity work yet never fails to include the work on his resume. (C2) This shows how shallow and narrow-minded people can sometimes be.”

6. Avoid grammar errors, but do not get hung up on one or two issues. It is not worth your time to go back and erase a few lines to correct one error. Keep writing and don’t make the same error again.

7. When the clock ticks down to two or three minutes left, write a short conclusion that applies your thesis to a broader context. Do not simply restate your thesis. Bad: “So, my essay shows that all people are basically evil.” Good: “When we understand the inherent shortcomings of the human race, we can avoid making misjudgments or mistakes in the future.”

[edit section] Mastery of Language Tips

You should utilize a few of these tips in your essay to ensure that you demonstrate a command of English:

• Figurative language: “She was a fox, waiting to catch her next prey.”
• Expressionism: “I feel for the tired masses who linger to the bank, waiting to pay off their decade-old mortgage payment.”
• Parallelism: “When you are sick, the Church fails you. When you are hungry, the Church fails you.”

[edit section] Good luck!

The entire ProProfs team wishes you success on your SAT exam! Read the guides, study the cram notes, and prepare to excel!

[edit section] See Also

• SAT Reading Cram
• SAT Practice Questions

Back To SAT Wiki

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