Subject Verb Agreement

Link of the Day

If you have been following the news about the meteor that hit Russia, here are some more details about the event.  This article will help you make human connections through your current event by showing how people reacted to a sudden event.  Some searched for explanations, some volunteered for clean-up, and some strove to profit from the event.  Motivation is a reoccurring theme in SAT essay prompts, and these responses could be used to support a variety of opinions about human nature and activities.

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 sentence to yourself, listening for errors.  Quickly check each underlined portion against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  Identify and mark any error that you find, but be sure to look at all the choices before selecting your answer.

Besides Aconserving forest resources, recycling produces fewer pollutants Bthan does the conventional pulping and bleaching processes Cthat are normally used Dto create paper. ENo error

(A)  Any time you see a verb with an “–ing” ending, check to make sure that the word is in the proper form.  Here you have an introductory phrase followed by a comma.  The “ing” format helps to indicate that this phrase is supplemental, that it modifies the coming independent clause.  There is no error here.

(B)  The word “than” indicates a comparison.  You already know that the sentence will contain a comparison because of the word “fewer.”  Now check the verb “does.”  Normally a verb comes after the subject, so you might be tempted to link “recycling” and “does.”  However, this portion of the comparison is actually focused on “the conventional pulping and bleaching processes” and what they do to create paper.  Notice that “processes” is plural, so you need the word “do” instead of the word “does.”  This is inverted subject-verb error and is often tested on the SAT. Mark this error and quickly check the other choices.

(C)  The words “that” and “which” both provide additional information, but the word “which” must be preceded by a comma.  There is no comma before the underlined portion, so “that” is correct.  There is no error here.

(D)  Processes are used to do something.  No other form of “create” will work in this underlined portion.  There is no error here.

(E)  This cannot be the answer because you already identified an error.

The correct answer is (B).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 73% of the responses were correct.

For more help with SAT vocabulary, visit www.myknowsys.com!