Writing: Identifying Sentence Errors
The following sentence
contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an
error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence
correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E.
Read
the whole sentence to yourself, listening for errors. Then quickly check each underlined portion of
the sentence against the Big 8 Grammar Rules, identifying and marking any
error.
In order to prepare for the speech he was given to all of the parents and teachers at the school, George practiced speaking in front of a group of his friends. No error
(A) When you use the word “prepare,” you prepare to do something (verb) or you prepare for something (noun). The words following the preposition “for” are
“the speech,” a noun, so this portion of the sentence is idiomatically
correct. There is no error here.
(B) If you did not read the whole sentence, this
portion of the sentence may look fine.
However, you don’t usually need to prepare for something that is given
to you. If you are preparing something,
you will probably be the one giving something.
Instead of “was given,” you need the words “was to give” or “will
give.” Mark this verb form error and
quickly check the remaining choices.
(C) The words “in front of” constitute an
idiomatically correct phrase to explain the location of something or, in this
case, someone. There is no error here.
(D) When you see a pronoun, check to make sure it
has one antecedent and that it matches the antecedent. The antecedent for “his” is “George,” and the
possessive pronoun is correct because the people are his friends rather than
our friends. The word “friends” must be
plural because you cannot have a group without more than one friend. There is no error here.
(E) This choice cannot be correct because you
already identified an error.
The correct answer is (B).
On sat.collegeboard.org, 82% of the responses were correct.
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