498 McGRAW-HILL’S SAT
The Writing portion of the SAT consists of the
25-minute essay and two multiple-choice grammar
sections. The grammar questions ask you to spot and
correct basic grammar and usage errors such as
subject-verb disagreement (as in There is(are) more
than thirty students in the class), pronoun-antecedent
disagreement (as in The club requires their(its) mem-
bers to pay dues), weak parallelism (as in She likes to
hike, fish, and enjoys cooking(cook)), tense problems
(as in The store changed(has changed) ownership sev-
eral times over the last decade), and so on. All these
errors are discussed in much more detail in Chapter 15.
Don’t worry—here are three pieces of really
good news about the SAT Writing:- You don’t have to memorize hundreds of
grammar rules to ace the SAT Writing, just
the 15 basic ideas discussed in Chapter 15.
Not so bad, right? - You don’t have to name a single grammar
rule. You just have to notice mistakes and
fix them. Of course, if you keep making mis-
takes because your “ear” doesn’t catch
them, you should learn the rules in Chapter
15 so that you can spot mistakes more eas-
ily. However, the SAT itself won’t require
you to label a mistake as, for instance, a
“dangling participle.” - You don’t have to worry about those “gram-
mar rules from nowhere” that your middle-
school English teacher might have gotten
hung up on, such as the ones listed below.
Five So-Called “Rules” NOT to Worry
About on the SAT Writing
- Never start a sentence withbecause.Although
about 95% of all middle school students have been
told this by one or another of their English teach-
ers, guess what? It’s not a rule! As long as every
other part of the sentence is okay, it’s perfectly fine
to start a sentence with because,even on the SAT
Writing.
2. Usewhichonly for noninclusive modifiers and
thatonly for inclusive modifiers.If you actually
know this rule, God bless you. You know more
than most English teachers. The simple fact is that
the SAT folks don’t give a flying prune whether or
not you know your thatfrom your which. The SAT
Writing sentences will always use thatandwhich
correctly. Don’t waste time worrying about them.
3. Only use whomrather than whowhen the ob-
jective case is required.Again, if you know this
rule, props to you. The fact is that the whole issue
ofwhoversuswhomis a bit tricky even for folks
who spend their whole lives talking about gram-
mar. It’s not quite as clear cut as the himversushe
rule. The SAT Writing sentences will always use
whoandwhomcorrectly. Don’t waste time worry-
ing about them.
4. The disappearingthats.Don’t worry about thats.
Some students see a sentence such as “The boys
found the soccer ball they had lost” and want to
stick a thatin it: The boys found the soccer ball
thatthey had lost. Basically, it’s okay either way.
Don’t spend any time worrying about missing
thats.
5. Don’t split infinitives.The SAT hasn’t included a
split infinitive in decades, and it’s unlikely to start
now. Infinitives are the basic forms of verbs with
to, such as to runandto be. They are split when-
ever someone sticks a modifier between the two
words. The classic example is the old Star Trek
prologue where Captain Kirk says that his mission
is “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Split infinitives drive some English teachers crazy,
but the SAT is cool about them.
Lesson 1:
Mapping:What Do the Writing Questions Want
from You?