Overview: Error Analysis
Essay questions on the SAT or ACT ask students to write on demand. Besides producing essays that are logical, focused, and readable, students are expected to have few or no grammatical or spelling errors. In addition, other parts of the test provide specific questions to see how well individual students can identify common spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and other grammatical errors.
Spelling Errors
Although writers tend to rely on the spell-checking features, test examiners expect students to catch spelling errors on standardized tests. It is also a good practice to catch them when proofreading, as the spell check feature misses spelling errors when the misspelled word turns out to be a real word in the incorrect context.
Capitalization Errors
Make sure all proper nouns are capitalized, and all common nouns are not capitalized. These types of errors can be caught quickly, especially if only one word in a longer proper noun is capitalized. Suppose the sentence prompt was ” the Golden gate bridge”. In that case, the correct response would be “capitalization error”.
Punctuation Errors
When two or more items are listed in a series, such as “paper, pencils, paint, and scissors” it is correct to use commas to separate the items. Correct punctuation marks need to be at the end of every sentence. As readers tend to add their own closure to sentences, it is easy to overlook punctuation errors.
No Error
Although “no error” is an option at the end of every short passage, it is not always the correct choice. While working through the test questions, justify the other answers first. Do not get bogged down in what the passage means, if the questions are limited to spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
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