SAT 6: IMPROVING SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS

IMPROVING SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS Recognize and write clear, effective, accurate sentences How do parts of a sentence work together? How do sentences work together in a paragraph? You will be required to show knowledge of Altering structures within sentences Combining sentences Determine most effective sentences

IMPROVING SENTENCES Look for common problem areas: Noun/verb agreement, parallelism, placement of modifiers, use of relative clauses For multiple choice questions, you must read the entire sentence before you look at the choices Helpful to read more slowly than you normally do

PARALLELISM Parallelism: Puts the contents of a sentence into a recognizable patter. Makes your sentence easier to understand Balance a word with a word, phrase with a phrase, clause with a clause Similar Types of words; adjectives, prepositional phrases, noun clauses,

PARALLELISM EXAMPLE “On a hot day, I like to swimming or to sit in the shade” Error : The sentence does not flow because the parts of the sentence are not parallel. Revision “On a hot day, I like to swim or to sit in the shade Rationale : The revised sentence makes the VERB Phrases parallel.

PRACTICE: IMPROVING SENTENCES Sample Questions (page 165, #’s 1-8)

IMPROVING PARAGRAPHS Utilize the information about improving individual sentences In addition; tackle wordiness Wordiness : using unnecessary words and phrases OR adding empty expressions to a sentence. Empty Expressions: are redundant (repetitive) and do not add anything to your sentence “two in number”, “if you know what I mean”

REWRITING SENTENCES TO AVOID WORDINESS “Our favorite balloon were those that were red in color” Error: Wordiness- “Red in color” Rationale: Since red is a type of color, both words are not necessary Revise: “Our favorite balloon was the red one”

PRACTICE AVOIDING WORDINESS Practice: (page 171, #’s 1-10)

IMPROVING PARAGRAPHS We would only be correcting sentences if we simply avoided errors. Therefore, Need to actively improve sentences/paragraphs Adding descriptive words that are NOT redundant.

ADDING DESCRIPTIVE WORDS ORIGINAL: “Our favorite balloons were red” Possible revisions: “When we spent a day at the circus, our favorite balloons were red and star shaped” “Red balloons decorated with silver sparkles caught the sunshine the best, so we decided they were our favorites”

ADDING DESCRIPTIVE WORDS Be careful: You are not adding words just for the sake of making the sentence longer! Adding words to CLARIFY and/or DESCRIBE. Clarify: Making clear the context or the meaning of the sentence (who, what, where, when, why) Describe: Using meaningful adjectives that contribute to the sentences meaning/objective.

PRACTICE ADDING DESCRIPTIVE WORDS Practice (page 175, #’s 1-10)