SAT Writing › Identifying Other Phrase, Clause, and Sentence Errors
As it turns out, she told the riddle wrong, and there was no way I would have been able to answer based on the information that she gave me.
No error
As it turns out
wrong
would have been able
that she gave me
This sentence is correct as written.
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
She aspired to someday live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, and traveling through the country. No error
through
live in
traveling
someday
No error
This sentence has a problem with parallelism. The items in the list should be formatted the same. The corrected sentence reads, "She aspired to someday live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, and travel through the country."
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
Important things to remember when adding fractions include creating a common denominator and reduce. No error
reduce
to remember
when adding
include
No error
The forms of verbs used in a list need to agree for the sentence to use proper parallelism. Because the sentence begins its list of two items with "creating," "reduce" should be changed to "reducing" in order to match the form of "creating." So, the corrected sentence would read, "Important things to remember when adding fractions include creating a common denominator and reducing."
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
The evening's entertainment consisted of a jazz quartet, a juggler, and playing musical chairs. No error
playing musical chairs
evening's entertainment
consisted of
jazz
No error
The three elements in the list should be formatted in the same way. Since the first two are just nouns without verbals, the third should be too. The corrected sentence reads, "The evening's entertainment consisted of a jazz quartet, a juggler, and a game of musical chairs."
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
She aspired to someday live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, and traveling through the country. No error
through
live in
traveling
someday
No error
This sentence has a problem with parallelism. The items in the list should be formatted the same. The corrected sentence reads, "She aspired to someday live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, and travel through the country."
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.
Although it was easy for Mary to identify the problem, she found it more difficult to communicate with the technical crew and solving it. No error
solving it
Although
found
more difficult
No error
This sentence has a problem with parallelism. The verbs “communicate” and “solving” should be formatted in the same way, since they are the two things it was "more difficult" for Mary to do. Since only "solving it," and not "communicate," is underlined, "solving it" contains the sentence's error and is the correct answer. The corrected sentence reads, "Although it was easy for Mary to identify the problem, she found it more difficult to communicate with the technical crew and solve it."
Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Logan's high school puts on more plays than his sister.
than his sister's school
compared to what his sister's school does
as opposed to his sister's school
than his sister
than does his sister
This question is looking for a logical comparision between one school (Logan's) and another (his sister's) rather than a comparison between a school (Logan's) and a person (his sister). Although "as opposed to his sister's school" and "than does his sister's school" both express this concept, they are unnecessarily wordy, leaving "than his sister's school" as the correct answer.
As it turns out, she told the riddle wrong, and there was no way I would have been able to answer based on the information that she gave me.
No error
As it turns out
wrong
would have been able
that she gave me
This sentence is correct as written.
Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.
Logan's high school puts on more plays than his sister.
than his sister's school
compared to what his sister's school does
as opposed to his sister's school
than his sister
than does his sister
This question is looking for a logical comparision between one school (Logan's) and another (his sister's) rather than a comparison between a school (Logan's) and a person (his sister). Although "as opposed to his sister's school" and "than does his sister's school" both express this concept, they are unnecessarily wordy, leaving "than his sister's school" as the correct answer.
Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error.
In addition to providing lunch for the children, the camp counselors also gave them dessert and played educational games with them. No error
also
the children, the
them
played
No error
The error in this sentence is redundancy, which is basically saying more than you need to. Since the beginning of the sentence already established that the counselors were going to provide something else besides lunch ("in addition"), saying "also" later is redundant. The solution for redundancy is almost always just cutting something out so the revised sentence would read "In addition to providing lunch for the children, the camp counselors gave them dessert and played educational games with them."