CHAPTER 14 / HOW TO ATTACK SAT WRITING QUESTIONS 499
Mapping:What are “Improving Sentences”
Questions?
Every SAT Writing section begins with “improving
sentences” questions, each of which gives you a sen-
tence and asks you to figure out whether an under-
lined portion has an error in grammar, usage, or
awkwardness. If it does, you must choose the best
correction from the choices. If the sentence is okay,
choose (A), which leaves the sentence as it is.
The children couldn’t hardly believe their eyes.
(A) couldn’t hardly believe their eyes
(B) would not hardly believe their eyes
(C) could hardly believe their eyes
(D) couldn’t nearly believe their eyes
(E) could hardly believe his or her eyes
The original sentence contains a double negative,
couldn’t hardly. The right answer has to fix this mis-
take without breaking any other rules of grammar.
Choices (C) and (E) both fix the double negative, but
choice (E) introduces a new problem: His or heris a
singular phrase, but the noun it refers to, children, is
plural. Therefore, the correct answer is (C).
“Improving sentences” questions require you to
fixgrammatical mistakes rather than merely
findthem. So the best way to attack them is to
look actively for errors and correct thembefore
looking at the choices.The College Hill Method for Attacking
“Improving Sentences” Questions
- Read the entiresentence naturally. If you have a
good grammar “ear,” let it tell you if anything in the
underlined part sounds wrong. Don’t overanalyze
the sentence when you first read it. If you have
read a lot of well-written prose, you will have
developed a good “ear” for grammatical mistakes.
Trust it. If you haven’t read much good prose,
your ear won’t help as much, so you’ll have to
really memorize the rules in Chapter 15 (and start
reading good books now). - If the underlined part has an obvious error, try to
fix it so that you have a good idea of what to look
for among the choices. Then eliminate choice (A)
as well as any other choices that repeat the same
error. Remember—the error must violate one of
the grammar rules discussed in Chapter 15.
3. If the underlined portion does NOT contain an
error, be inclined to choose (A), but test any
choices that are shorterthan (A) to see if they con-
vey the idea as clearly as the original. If you find a
shorter option that is just as clear and logical as
the original, choose the shorter one.
4. Reread the sentence with your choice, and make
sure that the sentence works as a whole and that
it does not contain any other errors. Remember
that a sentence may have more than one mistake
that needs to be fixed!
Check:Only Worry About the “Standard”
Errors Listed in Chapter 15When your ear catches a possible error, take
one more step to check it. Make sure that any
error is a “standard” error in grammar or
usage and not just a matter of personal prefer-
ence. Don’t assume that a sentence contains an
error just because you might have phrased it
differently. Instead, try to identify the error as
a violation of one of the “standard” errors dis-
cussed in Chapter 15.The captains were given awards despite the team’s
loss, for they had sacrificed a great deal for the sake
of the team.
(A) for they had sacrificed a great deal for the sake of
the team
(B) in the sense of sacrificing a great deal for the sake
of the team
(C) but had sacrificed a great deal for the sake of the
team
(D) their sacrifice for the sake of the team being the
reason for them
(E) nevertheless, they sacrificed a great deal for the
sake of the team
The original sentence may sound a bit odd, so you
may think that it has an error. But after you read the
choices, it should be clear that no other choice is
clearer or more logical. In fact, the original sentence
is best. It sounds odd because it uses the word forin
a slightly strange (but acceptable) way. Although for
is usually used as a preposition, it is here used as a
conjunction similar to becauseorsince.Lesson 2:
Attacking “Improving Sentences” Questions