SAT Reading & Writing section grammar rules & elimination chart
SAT Writing section quick start rules & elimination chart
- the answers & eliminations follow set grammar, punctuation, and usage conventions
- therefore, identify the rules as you practice & apply them in your elimination strategies
- consider each possible answer and identify the RULES that govern its correctness or error:
Category | Item | Rule | Rule/ Test |
---|---|---|---|
Clause | independent clause (IC) | has a subject and verb and could be a sentence by itself | subject and verb cannot be separated by a single comma |
IC may contain multiple subjects and/or verbs and/or objects | |||
IC may contain a parenthetical phrase or | |||
multiple ICs are combined using comma + coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) | |||
dependent clause (DC) | has a subject and verb but cannot be a sentence by itself | introduced by subordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns, etc. | |
dependent clauses modify the IC or add information to it | DC types include subordinate (SC) and relative (RC) clauses | ||
subordinate clause SC | introduced by a subordinating conjunction, such as because, when, which, etc. | if following an IC, the subordinating conjunction "which" usually refers to the object of the prior IC | |
make sure the SC is not next to another SC (i.e, 2 SC's in a row is usually incorrect) | |||
relative clause (RC) | introduced by a relative pronoun (that, which, who, whom, which) | relative clause has a subject (pronoun) & verb but is not an IC, as it serves to modify the IC | |
requisite RC = no punctuation if the information is essential (requisite) | relative clauses may preceded (part of the subject) or follow the verb (part of the predicate) | ||
non-requisite RC = sparated from other sentence part by a comma (not essential) | |||
Phrase | prepositional phrase | prepositional phrases are not subjects of a sentence | preposition and noun = preposition phrase = modifies another noun |
when identifying the subject of the sentence, ignore the prepositional phrase | |||
introductory phrase | gives context to a sentence, usually as a prepositional phrase | not always separated from the subject by a comma, so be sure to identify/separate it from the subject | |
participial phrase | modifying phrase introduced by a verb acting as an adjective (participle) | participial phrases | |
parenthetical phrases | sometimes called "interrupters", used to add information outside of sentence flow | marked by parentheses ( ... ) commas , ... , or dashes --. .. -- | |
comma: identify if the comma is creating a list or acting parenthetically | |||
dash: identify if the dash is acting as a colon or parentheses | |||
Verb | tense | subject-verb matching (conjugations) | identify the subject and match the verb to the subject (conjugation or singular/plural) |
subjects are never the noun in a prepositional phrase (object of the preposition) | |||
conjugate the verb to identify 3rd person singular or plural ("it goes" v. "they go") | |||
participle adjective | verb acting as an adjective | distinguish the action verb from a participle adjective | |
linking verbs "is"/ "are" (to be) are often followed by a past participle (subject complement adjective) | |||
present particple adjective = "-ing" form of the verb | |||
past participle adjective = "-ed" or other simple past tense of the verb | |||
gerund noun | verb acting as a noun with the -ing form of the verb | the gerund noun can be a subject | |
Combining sentences | redundancy | repeats words or ideas already stated | usually (but not always) the shortest answer is the correct answer if redundancy is the rule |
pronoun is redundant or unecessary | (note that comparisons and some other contexts require additional words) | ||
punctuation | type of clauses created by the sentence combination | if two ICs are created, must be combined by a comma and coordinating conjunction (FANBOY) | |
if an IC and a SC are created, must be combined by a comma only | |||
participial phrase | participial phrases convert the verb of one of the sentences into a participle adjective | ||
must be attached to an IC and combined with a comma only | |||
Transition words | |||
Sentence placement | |||
apostrophes | |||
parallelism | |||
comparisons |