I. Eight Types of Errors in the Sentence Correction Section

wA. Subject-Verb Agreement

wB. Modifiers

wC. Parallelism

wD. Pronoun Agreement

wE. Verb Time Sequences

wF. Comparisons

wG. Idioms

II. Three-Step Method to the Sentence Correction Questions

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B. Modifiers

 1. Errors in the Use of Adjectives and Adverbs.

Check if a word modifier is an ADJECTIVE or an ADVERB. Make sure the correct form has been used.

• An ADJECTIVE describes a noun and answers the questions how many, which one, what kind?

She is a good tennis player. (What kind of tennis player?)

• An ADVERB describes either a verb or an adjective and answers the questions when, where, why, in what manner, and to what extent?
  
  She plays tennis well. (She plays tennis how?) This exercise is relatively easy. (How easy?)

Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the adjective, such as, "He worked quickly."

EXCEPTIONS:

Adjective	Adverb
early fast good hard late	early fast well hard (hardly means almost not) late (lately means recently)

      

wrong: She is a real good swimmer.

right: She is a really good swimmer.

"really" is acting as an adverb to modify the adjective "good"

wrong: The new student speaks bad.

right: The new student speaks badly.

"Badly" modifies how the student speaks.

 

2. Errors of Adjectives with Verbs of Sense.
The following verbs of sense are described by ADJECTIVES:

be

look

smell

taste

feel

seem

wrong: After the three week vacation, she looked very well.

right: After the three week vacation, she looked very good.

NOTE: "She is well" means "She is healthy" or describes a person's well-being.

wrong: The strawberry shortcake tastes deliciously.

right: The strawberry shortcake tastes delicious.

3. Location of Modification.

• A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes another part of the sentence.
• You should place a modifier as close as possible to what it is modifying.
• Modifiers sometimes appear to modify words that they don't modify.
  
  Test writers often use tricks to confuse students with modification:
  • that/which clauses, especially ones that come at the end of sentences
  • sentences beginning or ending with descriptive phrases
    

Examples
Faulty modifications often inadvertently change the meaning of sentences.

1. On arriving at the train station, his friends met him and took him immediately to his speaking engagement in Springfield.

This sounds as if the friends arrived at the train station. It should say, "When Jay arrived at the train station, his friends met him and took him to his speaking engagement in Springfield."

Where did "Jay" come from? Sometimes one of the answer choices might inject new names into a sentence. This is appropriate here since the pronouns had no specific antecedents.

 

w C. Parallelism

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