{"id":3521,"date":"2013-09-09T14:37:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T14:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/testpreparations.com\/help\/?p=3521"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:26:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:26:58","slug":"recognizing-appropriate-sentence-construction-in-reading-passages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/2013\/09\/09\/recognizing-appropriate-sentence-construction-in-reading-passages\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognizing Appropriate Sentence Construction in Reading Passages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview:\u00a0 Why Sentence Construction?<\/strong>
\nSome test questions in the English\/grammar portion of the SAT, ACT, and other tests ask students to read a passage and find the best way to rewrite it, whether by combining sentences or correcting sentence fragments.\u00a0 The reason questions like this are asked is to test students’ ability to apply their editing skills and the rules of sentence construction.\u00a0 They are expected to read quickly and choose combinations that do not change the overall meaning of the passage, between alternatives that may or may not preserve meaning and formal, standard usage.<\/p>\n

Is the Sentence Complete?<\/strong>
\nEvery phrase presented as a sentence must be capable of standing on its own with a subject and verb, expressing a complete thought.\u00a0 Sometimes the verb might precede or follow the subject, and sometimes a form of to be is the main verb.\u00a0 Also, check to see if two or more sentences have been joined incorrectly as comma splices, presented without punctuation, or otherwise joined when they should not be.<\/p>\n

What Are Phrases?<\/strong>
\nPhrases are groups of words that act as a unit without a subject or verb contained in them.\u00a0 One type of phrase is the prepositional phrase, which will give more information, but will not contain the subject or verb.\u00a0 A prepositional phrase such as “to the moon” contains a preposition, an article, and a noun.\u00a0 If it were elaborated further, as “to the airless, many-cratered moon” , it would still be just a phrase.<\/p>\n

What Are Clauses?<\/strong>
\nUnlike phrases, clauses act as a unit, but they do contain a noun and a verb.\u00a0 Independent clauses are tricky because they can stand by themselves as separate sentences.\u00a0 Subordinate clauses add meaning, but they could not necessarily stand as separate sentences, even though they contain subjects and verbs.\u00a0 For example, “When the moon rose over the horizon” is a subordinate phrase that contains a subject and verb, but it could not be a separate sentence.\u00a0 Sentences with vague antecedents like “this” and “that” are usually also incorrect alternative choices unless other words in the sentence clearly state the relationship.<\/p>\n

What Is Sentence Repetition?<\/strong>
\nOne strategy to use when choosing answers from alternatives is to watch for repetition of words and phrases in consecutive sentences, as repetition can be a signal to combine sentences.\u00a0 The best way to combine sentences may eliminate the repetition by using a phrase or clause, or by making the subject or verb compound, while still preserving meaning.\u00a0 A sample illustrative passage might be , “Many people enjoy attending summer music festivals.\u00a0 There are festivals for almost every type of music, from rock to jazz to classical. ”\u00a0 An acceptable alternative might be, “Many people enjoy attending summer music festivals, which exist for almost every type of music, from rock to jazz to classical.”<\/p>\n

Do \u00a0you need to know more about how test questions on the SAT or ACT are scored? Learn more<\/a> about how we are assisting thousands of students each academic year. Test Prep Academy is the premier test prep and private tutoring company for college-bound students. Our highly qualified test prep tutors deliver one-on-one personalized instruction that fit our student\u2019s busy schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overview:\u00a0 Why Sentence Construction? Some test questions in the English\/grammar portion of the SAT, ACT, and other tests ask students to read a passage and find the best way to rewrite it, whether by combining sentences or correcting sentence fragments.\u00a0 The reason questions like this are asked is to test students’ ability to apply their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2841,3019,2851,2853,3018],"tags":[295,3097,3180,1325,3275,3304],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-act","category-comprehension-and-grammar","category-sat","category-study-tips-and-strategies","category-writing-act","tag-clauses","tag-fragments","tag-independent-clauses","tag-phrases","tag-sentence-construction","tag-subordinate-clauses"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/scholarship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}