The SAT Writing and Language Test

The SAT ,vriting and Language Test

The SAT Writing and Language Test is the second section of the SAT and one of the two
components of the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section (the other component is the
Reading test). For anyone who has prepared for or taken a look at the Writing section on the old
SAT, the Writing and Language test on the New SAT will come as a huge change for two reasons:

1. There are no direct or standalone grammar questions. All the questions are based on
passages.
11. The essay section is not a part of the Writing section any more. It will come as a separate
optional section on the New SAT.
As stated above, the questions in the Writing and Language test will be from various passages. This
sounds a little counter intuitive because passages are usually associated with the Reading test and
not with grammar. This is exactly why this section is called the 'Writing and Language test'-it is
testing you on more than just grammar. The closest analogy we can provide you is to think that

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you are the editor of a magazine and some passages have been submitted to you for editing. You

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won't just check these passages for grammar; you'll also check them for meaning, use of correct
words, sentence order, etc. This is exactly the approach you will have to adopt on the Writing and
language Test.

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The Writing and language Test will contain 4 passages with 11 questions from each, that is, a total
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of 44 questions. You will have to attempt these 44 questions in 35 minutes, giving you roughly 45
seconds for each question (or 9 minutes for each passage). All the questions on the Writing and
language Test will be multiple-choice type, wherein you will need to select one correct answer from
four answer choices. The first answer choice, in most cases, will be 'NO CHANGE', which you will
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select if you find the sentence correct as written.

The length of the passages and their difficulty levels will not really matter to you much because you
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will primarily be answering grammar and meaning-related questions and not comprehension based
ones.
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\Vhat is the 1Vritill,t!,' and langllage Te.<;f testing me on?

The Writing and Language test will test you primarily on the following:

Gram1nar rules
You will be tested on basic grammar rules such those for subject-verb agreement, usage of the
correct tense, parallel structure, modifiers, etc. You will also be tested a lot on the correct usage of
punctuation such as semi colon, colon, dash, etc.
SAT Writing and Language Grail

Usage of words
You will be tested on the correct usage of words such as where, like, as, etc. You will also be tested on
your knowledge of correct idiomatic expressions such as regard as, comply with, etc.

Meaning
You will be tested on the meaning of words and sentences both. Moreover, you will be tested on
transition between sentences or paragraphs using words such as similarly, however, consequently, etc.

Remember that, while the questions will appear in the form of passages, you will not be tested
on comprehension to a very great extent. To answer most of the questions, you will just have
to focus on specific lines or one sentence before or/and after this line to understand the overall
context. There will be some questions testing your command-of-evidence, which will require that
you comprehend the passage correctly, but there won't be too many of these in the section.

In this chapter, we will focus on all the important grammar and usage-related concepts and rules.

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We'll discuss the specific question types tested on the Writing and Language Test in the next
chapter.

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Let's now take a look at some basic grammar building blocks, starting with the Parts of speech.
Remember that, while each of these can be a very detailed topic, you just need functional knowledge
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of most of these terms. Thus, we will limit our scope only to what you need to know in order to ace
the Writing and language Test.

l) Noun
Nouns are naming words. Everything we see or talk about is represented by a word which names
it-that word is called a noun. Nouns can be names for people, animals, places, objects, substances,
qualities, actions, etc.

i) Namesfar people, animals, places - Tom, Englishman, brother, cat, effice, China.
ii) Names for objects and substances - chair, computer, hammer, oxygen, water, ice
iii) Namesfor qualities - kindness, beauty, bravery,faith
iv) Namesfar actions - rowing, cooking, reading, listening
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SAT Writing and language Grail

Note: Dependent and Independent clauses will be covered later in this section.

The most common subordinating conjunctions are after, although, as, because, before, how, if, once,
since, that, though, till, until, when, where, whether, and while.

Examples:
• After she got a job, Alice felt more independent. (The subordinating conjunction after
introduces the dependent clause After she got a job)
• If the train departs on time, you will reach Georgetown latest by 6 p. m. (the subordinating
conjunction if introduces the dependent clause If the train departs on time)

Con_junctive Adverhs
Conjunctive Adverbs are used to show relationships such as cause and effect, contrast, comparison,
etc. Conjunctive adverbs include words such as however, therefore, thus, moreover, nevertheless, etc.
There are some peculiar rules with regards to the use of punctuation along with conjunctive adverbs.

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We'll discuss these in the topic Run-on Sentences later in this chapter.

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Those were the important parts of speech. Now let's look at the parts of a sentence and a few other
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terms that you need to know.

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1) Sub_jcct and Object

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A lot of the explanations in English grammar start with the terms subject, object, and predicate, so it's
important that you have a clear understanding of what these three terms refer to.

Subject is the person or thing who/which carries out the action of the verb. In other words, the
Subject is the noun to which the sentence's verb refers.

For example:

1be teacher is playing with the students.

In the above sentence, the main verb is playing. This action is carried out by the teacher. So, the
teacher is the Subject of the sentence.

The object is the person or thing upon whom/which the action of the verb is carried out.

In the earlier example, the action playing is being carried out on the students. Thus, students is the
Object of the sentence.
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SAT Writing and Language Grail

Gran1rnar Error Types

So far, we have covered the basic grammar concepts that make up a sentence. Now let's look at the
various grammar error types that are tested on the SAT.

These error types are:

A) Fragments and Run-ons

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B) Subject-Verb Agreement

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C) Tenses
D) Pronouns
E) Modifiers
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F) Parellel Construction
G) Comparison
H) Idioms and Style
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I) Meaning
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.A) F'ragn1cnts and llun-ons

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Let's start by looking at what makes up a complete sentence:

Sentence = Subject + Verb/Predicate + Meaning

So to make a complete sentence you need three things - a subject, a predicate, and some meaning.
If any of the three is missing, the sentence is called a fragment. Almost always it is the verb that
will be missing in these sentences.

Consider the following example:

Bruce going/or a movie today.

Does the sentence contain all three of the above requirements?

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SAT Writing and language Grail

Keep in mind that you can never use a comma to connect two independent clauses. If you do so,
such a sentence is called a run-on sentence or a comma splice. If you do away with the comma as
well, then the sentence is called a Fused sentence.

So a run-on sentence is when you connect two independent clauses using an improper connecting
word or punctuation-most often a comma.

How• to cm·red a Run-on St'nic1u·e?

There are four ways of correcting Run-on sentences:

1. Use a full stop (.)

Michael Phelps is a great swimmer. He has won 22 Olympic medals.
2. Use a semi colon(;)
Michael Phelps is a great swimmer; he has won 22 Olympic medals.

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3. Use a coordinating (FANBOYS) conjunction

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Michael Phelps is a great swimmer and he has won 22 Olympic medals.
4. Use a relationship word to make one clause dependent on the other
Because Michael Phelps is a great swimmer, he has won 22 Olympic medals.
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Note: To correct a run-on sentence you use either a semi colon or a coordinating conjunction but not both.
Thefallowing is an incorrect sentence:
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Michael Phelps is a great swimmer; and he has won 22 Olympic medals.

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Hnu-on Sent<•nces and Conjunctive Adverbs

We discussed the term Conjunctive Adverb earlier in this book under the topic Conjunctions. To
quickly recap, conjunctive adverbs are connecting words such as therefore, hence, thus, however,
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moreover, etc.

The following punctuation rules need to be followed when using conjunctive adverbs in a sentence:

When a conjunctive adverb is used to connect two independent clauses, it must be preceded by
a semi colon and followed by a comma.

Consider the following sentences:.

1. The athlete practiced very hard, therefore he won the race.

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SAT Writing and language Grail

ix) hTv(•rted Senlenecs

Usually in a sentence the subject always precedes the verb, but sometimes the SAT can reverse this
order, so that the verb comes before the subject.

For example:

'Jhrough the Golden Eagle Bridgepasses thousands efvehicles every day.

In the above sentence, the singular verb passes is not referring to the singular Golden Eagle Bridge but
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to the plural thousands vehicles. Hence, the correct verb will be the plural pass.

'Jhrough the Golden Eagle Bridgepass thousands efvehicles every day.

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Tenses are verb forms that tell you about the time period in a sentence, that is, when does the
action take place in a sentence. They can at times indicate whether an action has been completed or
whether it is still in progress. Common sense dictates that there can only be three time periods-the
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past, the present, and the future.

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Accordingly we have three types of tenses:

• The Past Tense - was, were, had, etc.
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• The Present Tense - is, are, has, have, etc.

• The Future Tense - will, would, etc.

There are four variations of each of these three tenses:

i. The Simple Tense - The simple tenses are used to show habitual or frequent actions,
actions occurring at the moment, or to state generally accepted facts.
ii. The Continuous/Progressive Tense - Verbs in Continuous Tenses always express actions
that are in progress during the time framework indicated: present, past, future, or any of
the perfect timeframes.
iii. The Perfect Tense -The Perfect tenses are used to indicate the completeness of an action­
completed in the past or at the present time, or will be completed by sometime in the future.
iv. The Perfect Continuous/Progressive Tense - The perfect continuous tense is used to
denote actions that were repeated over a period of time in the past, are continuing in the
present, and/or will continue in the future.
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 The SAT Writing and Language Test

vi) The Present Pcrfoct Continuous Tense

This is used to denote an action that started in the past and continues into the present.

FORM - [has/have + been + present participle]

• John has been waiting herefor two hours
• They have been talkingfar the last hour
• Recently, I have beenfeeling really tired

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Ho,v ,vill Tenses be tested on the SAT?

i. Put different time periods in a Logical SequenceK

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As discussed earlier, tense questions will test you on your understanding of the meaning of a
sentence. It would be very simple if the SAT were to give you sentences in one time period only. Of
course the SAT likes to complicate things by giving you multiple time periods in the same sentence.
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The professor predicts that as students become more and more dependent on coaching classes in the coming
years, coaching institutes have been mushrooming across the country.
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A. coaching institutes have been mushrooming

B. coaching institutes will mushroom
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C. coaching institutes are mushrooming

D. coaching institutes should mushroom

The first part of this sentence-as students becom�is in the future tense because when will the
students become dependent? Obviously, in the future. To match this, the second part also needs to
be in the future tense.

Hence options A and C immediately go out.

Option D incorrectly uses should to imply that the professor wants these coaching institutes to
mushroom, making B the correct answer.

On Tense questions, it is very important that you pay attention to the part of the sentence that is not
underlined because only then will you be able to grasp the overall meaning of the sentence.
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SAT Writing and Language Grail

When you get a sentence on the SAT that is similar to the one above, you'll immediately assume
you are being tested on Comparisons and check whether the comparison makes logical sense. Since
you are aware that a common trick in such questions is to compare the average scores with students,
you'll immediately scan the answer choices that do so and remove them (and this is the right
approach, by the way).

However, in checking for Comparisons, you might forget to check for Pronoun Agreement. The
moment you see that (as in the above sentence) you'll think it refers back to the scores, so the
sentence is correct. However that cannot refer to a plural noun, it can only refer to singular nouns.
To replace plural nouns you must use those. So the correct sentence will read:

The average scores ofstudents this year are higher than those ofstudents last year.
Important: In the above sentence, that is being used as a demonstrative pronoun, that is, a pronoun
that substitutes for a noun. In such cases, that can never be plural. However, when that is used as a
relative pronoun, then it can easily modify plural nouns as well.

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For example:

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The books that are lying on the table belong to me. (that is a relative pronoun modifying the
plural noun books)

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This sentence should make things clear for you:
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The books that are lying on the table belong to me, but thttt those on the chair belong to Jerry.

iv) A Pronoun cannot refer to an Adjective

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A pronoun, by definition, is meant to stand in place of a noun only. A common trick the test makers
use is to confuse you between nouns and nouns that function as an adjective.
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After the success the Spanishfootball team in recent years, more and more people in Spain are
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taking it up as a sport.

In the above sentence, Spanish and football are both used as adjectives to modify the noun team.
So the use of it (taking it up as a sport) is incorrect because it technically does not have a noun
antecedent in the sentence.

The correct sentence should read:

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After the success the Spanishfootball team in recent years, more and more people in Spain are
taking upfootball as a sport.
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 The SAT Writing and Language Test

iii) The Ad,jedival Phrase/Clnu1-e (Noun J\lodifie1·s)

The SAT will not restrict itself to the use of only individual adjectives and adverbs; it will go one step
ahead and give you phrases and clauses that again act as adjectives. These phrases are also known as
noun modifiers and function as adjectives, that is, they modify the noun or pronoun in a sentence.

Let's look at the following example:

ofthe rising sun.

John is visiting Japan, the land

In this sentence, the adjectival phrase the land ofthe rising sun is modifying or describing the noun
Japan.

'lhe 'Ihuch Rule for Noun Modifiers

In general, a noun modifier (adjectival modifier/participial phrase) must touch the

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noun or pronoun that it modifies.

If we were to rephrase the above example as follows:

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ofthe rising sun, is visitingJapan.
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This sentence implies that John is the land of the rising sun. This obviously doesn't make any sense.
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iv) Misplaced Modifiers

In an effort to do well in the exam, ten hours ofstudy were put in everyday byJohn.
The phrase In an effort to do well on the exam is called a modifying phrase because it is modifying
a subject (which is not contained within the phrase). The person who is making the effort is the
subject of the sentence, that is,]ohn.

As per the Proximity rule mentioned earlier, the modifier must be as close as possible to what it
modifies, but in the above sentence the modifying phrase is followed by ten hours. Hence, this is a
case of a misplaced modifier; the correct sentence should have the subject, that is,]ohn, immediately
after the comma.

In an effort to do well in the exam,John put in ten hours ofstudy every day.
It is usually quite easy to identify misplaced modifiers-whenever a sentence begins with a modifying
phrase (especially one that starts with an -ing word) followed by a comma, the noun or pronoun
. following the comma should be what that phrase is referring to.
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 The SAT Writing and Language Test

If you look at this sentence with a myopic vision (that is, without understanding its meaning) you
might think it gets the parallel construction right-including, spending, and taking, all end with
-ing.

However, if you read the sentence again, you'll realize that including is common to all three things
so what actually has to be made parallel are the nouns airfare, two days at the Grand Hotel, and a
trip to Liberty Island.

So, the correct sentence should read:

7he fare from London to New York is $880 including airfare from London, two days at the
Grand Hotel, and a trip to Liberty Island.

How about this one then?

After the typhoon, the citizens of the county were left without food, power, and huge bills far
reconstructing their houses.

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When a preposition such as without is used in front of only the first member of a series, it's taken

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to refer to all the members of the series. In the context of this sentence, t1,:s n::·:i,', th�t the ritizens
were left without food, without power, and without huge bills for r1:constr1,-.:u;w ,: ;,:· l,m1�e,,.1lw
last part obviously doesn't make sense and can be corrected by rewriting th., st:ntencc.

Correct: After the typhoon, the citizens ofthe county were left withoutfood, without power, and ·-;;.•ith
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huge billsfar reconstructing their houses.

Correct: After the typhoon, the citizens ofthe county were left withoutfood and power, and with huge
billsfor reconstructing their houses.
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So to summarize, make it a point to understand the meaning of a sentence before you decide what
aspects to make parallel. Making things parallel blindly could land you in trouble, especially on high
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difficulty questions.
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The use of t!tat twice in a sentence:

My trainer suggests that, in order to lose weight quickly, I cut out all carbohydratesfrom my diet
and that� exercisefar at least an hour every day.

The reason this sentence uses that twice is because the trainer is actually making two suggestions­
tone about the diet and one about the exercise-so that needs to be repeated before each suggestion
to maintain parallelism. If you don't repeat the that, then you are implying that the trainer has
actually made only one suggestion. So it will again come down to your understanding of the
meaning of the sentence correctly.
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 The SAT Writing and Language Test

Incorrect: Between the two ofthem, his idea is the best

Correct: Between the two ofthem, his idea is better

Also remember that if a sentence starts with a comparative such as the more, the higher, etc., the
second clause of the sentence will also start with a comparative.

For example:

Incorrect: 7he more john studies, he will score even higher.

Correct: 7he more john studies, the higher he will score.

v) The use of Like and A8

A common problem faced by most students is when to use Like and when to use As. Since Like is a
preposition and As is a conjunction, use like only to compare nouns and as for all other comparisons

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(e.g. while comparing clauses)

Examples:

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1. John &Jacob, as/like theirfather Mark, are excellent players ofchess.
In this sentence,John and Jacob are nouns that are being compared with another noun Mark.
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Hence, the correct word here is 'like'.

2. just as/like reading is goodfar the mind, running is goodfar the body.
In this sentence, two clauses 'reading is good for the mind' and 'running is good for the body'
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are being compared, so the correct word is 'as'.

Whenever you spot the following words in a sentence-like, unlike, than, as many, as much--check
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for Comparison error.

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II) Idioms and Style

Idioms are probably the trickiest aspect of Writing questions, primarily because we use a
lot of them incorrectly in our day to day English usage.

For example:

A) John hasforbidden his daughterfrom going out in the night.

B) 7he GMA.T comprises ofAWA, IR, Quant, and Verbal sections.
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, , , ':i<," II SAT Writing and Language Grail

same sentence does not make sense. We should go with:

Like the tiger, the eagle has several characteristics that make it an excellent and most feared
predator.

Apart from these there are several other ways of distorting the meaning of a sentence. One common
link amongst all of them, however, will be the fact that they will always have at least two options
both of which will be grammatically correct. To arrive at the correct answer you'll need to think
about the meaning conveyed by the options respectively.

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S. unnning· 1·t· up
If you have read this section carefully, you can rest assured that you are now fully conversant with all
the important grammar rules and concepts that you need to ace the SAT. Also, keep in mind that
after three days of reading something, we tend to remember only 10% of it. Therefore, we recommend
that you go through this chapter once every few days so that all these rules get entrenched in your

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mind.

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In the next chapter, we will take a look at the specific question types tested on the SAT Writing
and Language test.
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