English review

How many questions? 75 How long is it? 45 minutes = 9 minutes/passage What does it test? Standard Written English which is different from conversation

What concepts are covered? Usage and Mechanics punctuation commas apostrophes colons/semi-colons parentheses/dashes periods/question marks/explanation pts **In your choices, the words will usually be the same, but the punctuation will be different

What concepts are covered, continued Grammar and Usage Subject/verb agreement Pronoun antecedent agreement Adjective/adverb usage with nouns and pronouns Verb tenses Pronoun forms/cases Comparative/superlative modifiers Idioms

What concepts are covered, continued Sentence structure subordinate/dependent clauses run-on sentences comma splices sentence fragments misplaced modifiers shifts in construction

What concepts are covered, continued Rhetorical skills writing strategies purpose of writing organization order of sentences coherence/clarity of paragraphs unity of paragraphs style of writing word choice – tone, clarity, economy

Final clues to the English test Read _____ passages five Answer _____ questions on each fifteen Allow _____ minutes per passage nine

Final reminders continued Read to the end of the sentences and maybe the sentence beyond the question to discover the relationship between sentences/ideas ****Substitute each option to discover the best one**** Check your answers

Redundancy (Repeating) If choices all say the same thing, choose the shortest answer Unnecessary and unessential Unnecessary Not necessary and not needed Not necessary and decidedly unessential

Specific Example It the question asks you to provide a specific example, choose the answer that is the most descriptive Red resisted giving up the couch and bed Red disappointed Andrew Red caused some difficulties Red objected

Yes/No Questions When you are given the yes/no question, decide yes or no before reading any of the responses. Then read only the two that pertain and judge their ideas only. A. Yes, . . . B. Yes, . . . C. No, . . . D. No, . . .

Similar Answers If answers are similar, they cancel each other out and can’t be the right answer If a question asks which one would NOT work – look for the oddball! When After Soon Because When, after, soon = time Because = cause/effect

Active / Passive Voice Stay in the active voice She was elected by her peers. (passive) Passive has the people doing the action stuck in a prepositional phrase Her peers elected her president. (active)

Verb Tenses Tense of verbs must be consistent Check the verb in the sentence above the one that is in the question = make sure the one you choose is the same tense Present Past Future

Parallel Structures Parallel structure Keep items in a list in the same grammatical structure Lounge, sleep, eating Lounge, sleep, eat Lounge, sleep, to eat Lounge, sleep, is eating I used up all of my money riding the roller coaster and playing the carnival games.

Modifiers Watch for dangling and misplaced modifiers Rounding the corner of the track, my shoe fell off. WRONG!!! The shoe is the subject of the sentence and the phrase. The shoe rounded the track??? Instead, use . . . As I rounded the track, my shoe fell off. My shoe fell off as I rounded the track.

Comparative/Superlative forms Most fastest – NO! More faster – NO! Redundant! Don’t use est with most Don’t use er with more Use most or est when comparing 3 or more Use more or er when comparing 2 Use neither when discussing only 1

Pronoun agreement Pronouns must agree with the nouns they are replacing in sex and number Jane = she (sex/gender) Tom and Jerry = we (number) Students = they (number)

Punctuation Punctuation If a semicolon is used, you must have a complete sentence on the left and right hand side. Sub verb ; sub verb A colon is used to introduce a formal list. The following students need to go the office: Jim, John, etc. No colon after a verb. The following students include Jim, John, etc. Can’t join two sentences with just a comma! I went to the game, then I went to Joey’s house. Comma splices! For miscellaneous commas, listen for the natural pause – if you pause, put in a comma and you’ll be right most of the time

Contractions Don’t get the easy ones wrong! It’s = it is Who’s = who is They’re = they are You’re = you are These are all two words!!!!!

Tone Check the tone/style of the passage informal – 1st person formal – 3rd person *** answers should be consistent with tone When the passage asks you to whether or not a new sentence or phrase should be added, make sure the tone matches the rest of the passage.

Irrelevant information Many yes/no questions include irrelevant info in the options. AVOID irrelevant info!!!

Strategy Read the passage from the very beginning to the end of the sentence that has an underlined section. Reread the underlined phrase with each option in its place – unless the answer is obvious to you. Then read from the underlined part to the end of the next sentence with an underlined part.

Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher said in the beginning of her first collection of essays, Serve it Forth, “Now I am going to write a book. It will be about eating and about what to eat and about people who eat.” But their work was much more than that.

Final reminders Read to the end of the sentences before answering the question – sometimes beyond if they ask for relationships between sentences When they ask you to add sentences, need to place each option in the correct place. Read the sentence before, then the sentence you are adding, and then the after it. All three must make sense together ****Substitute each option to discover the best one**** Always guess! Check your answers if time permits