Many students find that the SAT grammar section is a difficult and tedious part of the test. This section requires a strong knowledge of many obscure grammar rules that are seldom used in normal conversation and writing, and can cause frustration even for people who enjoy reading and writing for pleasure. Today, we will focus on two of the more common rules on the SAT, the comma splice error and the dangling modifier. These rules often appear in the identifying sentence errors and the sentence correction sections of the test.
The Comma Splice Error
A comma splice error frequently occurs when a person is trying to write in more interesting, complex sentences. Sometimes, this effort can backfire, particularly when the writer attempts to simply make their sentences longer by adding commas instead of periods. This error become obvious when analyzing the sentence to see whether a comma makes sense in its placement, since if there is clearly a complete sentence on either side of the comma, it should be removed and replaced with either a semicolon or a period. This error is quite easy to detect once you know what to look for, but it is easy to miss if you do not realize that this is a serious grammatical error.
Here is an example:
The man ran down the hill towards the town, he did not stop to eat or drink.
In this case, it is clear that each part of the sentence would be a complete sentence, so there is a comma splice error.
The man ran down the hill towards the town, not even pausing to eat or drink.
This version is correct, since the second part of the sentence is not a complete idea.
Dangling Modifiers
Dangling modifiers are a common error in writing, particularly since they often make sense in the context of the idea. The definition of a dangling modifier is an action that does not state the identity of the person or the thing doing the action. This most frequently happens when it seems obvious what the subject of an action is, but is it still necessary to specify it in order to remove ambiguity from writing and observe proper grammatical conventions.
Here is an example:
The ball was kicked into the net, winning the team the championship game.
This is a dangling modifier, as it is not specified who kicked the ball into the net. Here is a corrected version:
The forward kicked the ball into the net, winning the team the championship game.
Hopefully, these examples and the accompanying analysis made these concepts easier to understand. With a strong mastery of grammatical rules like these, the SAT writing section will rapidly become much less intimidating.
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This article was written for you by Tobias, one of the tutors with Test Prep Academy.
