{"id":6069,"date":"2016-03-19t09:33:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-19t16:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/?p=6069"},"modified":"2016-11-13t07:22:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13t15:22:26","slug":"sat-writing-multiple-choice-strategies-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-multiple-choice-strategies-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"sat writing multiple choice strategies, part 2: grammar and mechanics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"words-test\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
photo by\u00a0new penn<\/a><\/div>\n

in my last post, multiple choice strategies on the sat writing and language test: think like a writer<\/a>, on a multiple choice strategy for the sat writing and language section, i looked at questions that test your knowledge of writing style and content development. you\u2019ll get see a number of these kinds of writerly<\/em> questions on the sat.<\/p>\n

however, the most common writing\/language question type on the exam is the \u201ctechnical\u201d question type. technical writing questions don\u2019t look at the broader style and organization of an essay. instead, they focus on the grammar and mechanics of an essay, measuring a test-taker\u2019s ability to follow the rules of grammar and punctuation while creating properly formed phrases and sentences.<\/p>\n

eliminating the wrong answers and selecting the correct ones in these kinds of questions is simple, an answer choice either violates the technical rules of written english or doesn\u2019t. let\u2019s take a look at one sample sat writing and language question to see just how simple this can be:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

passage<\/h2>\n

(note: <\/strong>this example is just two sentences long and should be thought of as an excerpt from a longer piece of writing. on the exam itself, a full passage will surround the sentence in a technical question like this one. the task in this kind of sat question is to select the best revision to the sentence, or to select no revision if the sentence does not need changing.)<\/em><\/p>\n

because wolf populations have re-surged and wolves have been removed from the endangered species [1]<\/strong> list, so pro-hunting activists<\/u> have requested that the right to hunt wolves for sport be reinstated. others argue that such previously legal hunting practices are the primary reason that wolves became endangered in the first place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

question [1]<\/h2>\n

a<\/strong>) no change
\nb<\/strong>) list: pro-hunting activists
\nc<\/strong>) list, pro-hunting activists
\nd<\/strong>) list, therefore pro-hunting activists<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

how to answer this question correctly? simple! to eliminate answers (a<\/strong>) and (d<\/strong>) just know the rule that if you use a causal subordinating conjunction such as \u201cbecause,\u201d you don\u2019t also need to use a causal correlative conjunction such as \u201cso\u201d or \u201ctherefore,\u201d because the use of two causal conjunctions is redundant. or simply know that \u201cbecause, so\u201d and \u201cbecause\u2026 therefore\u201d are not correlative conjunctions in english.<\/p>\n

simple, yes, but not easy<\/em>. it\u2019s actually quite hard to remember the wide array of specific grammar rules and spot violations of the rules in a piece of writing. if you\u2019re a native speaker of english, these rules are deep in your subconscious, learned mostly as a part of your natural language development and not learned explicitly in class. this makes it very difficult to think of the rules consciously as you complete the writing and language section.<\/p>\n

interestingly, non-native english speakers have an advantage of sorts in spotting and understanding technical errors on the sat writing and language test. in most cases esl students learned a long list of grammar rules in a completely explicit way, with a keen conscious command of the grammar and mechanics of their second language. still, either way, there are a lot of rules to keep track of. the english language is organizationally complex!<\/p>\n

there are two strategies one can take to knowing the rules and thus being able answer grammar and mechanics questions effectively. one approach is to study and memorize specific grammar rules that are likely to come up in sat writing and language<\/a>. the other is to think carefully about the wording of each answer choice, intuitively judging which answer choices \u201cfeel\u201d wrong, and which ones seem better or \u201cbest.\u201d<\/p>\n

direct study of grammar tends to work best for esl learners, while intuitive judgements work a little better for native english speakers. however, i\u2019ve seen both esl students and native speakers use a combination of explicit rule-learning and intuition. as you practice questions in this part of the sat, you\u2019ll get a feel for which strategies work best for you, and what kinds of questions are most easily answered via each of these two strategies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

in this second post on multiple choice strategies for sat writing, we take a look at the technical grammar questions and how you can eliminate wrong answers and find the right one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[24913],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nsat writing multiple choice strategies, part 2: grammar and mechanics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"in this second post on multiple choice strategies for sat writing, we take a look at the technical grammar questions and how you can eliminate wrong answers and find the right one!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/sat-writing-multiple-choice-strategies-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta 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recine","image":{"@type":"imageobject","inlanguage":"en-us","@id":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/c25f47bb3a8328890274eea1ac8ba62f","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cb83f01789b236e00117edd9663c4568?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contenturl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cb83f01789b236e00117edd9663c4568?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"david recine"},"description":"david is a test prep expert for magoosh toefl and ielts. additionally, he's helped students with toeic, pet, fce, bulats, eiken, sat, act, gre, and gmat. david has a bs and ma from the university of wisconsin-eau claire and an ma from the university of wisconsin-river falls.","sameas":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshenglishlearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/ucra3kqojlop7rywacyh2qew"],"knowsabout":["toefl","ielts","toeic","pet","fce","bulats","eiken","sat","act","gre","gmat"],"knowslanguage":["english","italian"],"jobtitle":"content creator","worksfor":"magoosh","url":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":24913,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"david recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cb83f01789b236e00117edd9663c4568?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"recine","first_name":"david","description":"david is a test prep expert for magoosh toefl and ielts. additionally, he's helped students with toeic, pet, fce, bulats, eiken, sat, act, gre, and gmat.\r\n\r\ndavid has a bs from the university of wisconsin-eau claire and an ma from the university of wisconsin-river falls. his work at magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2c50&q=recine+magoosh&btng=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his master's thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> reading with pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-witesol-program-final-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> witesol (link to pdf)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> nafsa<\/a> conferences. david has taught k-12 esl in south korea as well as undergraduate english and mba-level business english at american universities. he has also trained english teachers in america, italy, and peru.\r\n\r\ncome join david and the magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/ucra3kqojlop7rywacyh2qew\"> youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshenglishlearning\"> facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> linkedin<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6069"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}