some basic tenets of linguistics.6.
A) NO CHANGE
B) You’re knowledge of grammar or vocabulary might be shaky,
C) Your knowledge of grammar and vocabulary might be shakily,
D) You’re knowledge of grammar and vocabulary might be shaky,Here’s How to Crack It
As always, check the answers first. In this case, here’s what’s changing: The answers are switching
between your and you’re, between and and or, and between shaky and shakily. Let’s do the easy parts
first!
First of all, there’s no reason to insert the word shakily here. You can’t say that someone has shakily
knowledge of something, so eliminate (C). Then, the knowledge belongs to you, so it is your knowledge,
not you are knowledge, thus eliminating (B) and (D). This leaves us with only (A).
Remember, NO CHANGE is right sometimes! Some people pick it too much. Some people don’t pick it
enough, but if you’ve done the other steps in the process and have eliminated all the other choices, go
ahead and pick (A)!
HOW TO ACE THE WRITING AND LANGUAGE TEST: A
STRATEGY
- Check what’s changing in the answer choices.
- Figure out what the question is testing and let the differences reveal potential errors.
- Use Process of Elimination.
- If you haven’t eliminated three answers, pick the shortest one that is most consistent with the rest
of the sentence.
In the next few chapters, we’ll get in to some of the more technical issues in Writing and Language, but
we’ll be using this strategy throughout. Try the drill on the next page to get some of the basics down.