Fundamentals of Sentence Structure & Punctuation

Master the Mechanics of Writing: Sentence Structure and Punctuation

All sentence correction questions in GMAT, SAT or in any other standardized tests consist of a sentence with part underlined, followed by answer choices. Your task is to choose the BEST version from the choices given. Sentence structure correction questions test your knowledge of standard written English. Now it would be very easy if you could read the choices and pick the one that sounds best, but the sentences are often very confusing.

Choosing the better sentence on standardized tests can be a challenging task if neither of the sentences has any grammatical or mechanical errors. Sometimes, there is a less obvious problem with one of the sentence’s structure or effectiveness, thus making it harder to choose the better sentence.

Again, during exam, your job is to recognize which part of a sentence, if any, must be corrected. The sentence might have a single error or no error at all. You can recognize these more obscure flaws only when you are prepared and know what to look for. Does it sound convincing?

Inconsistency in a sentence can be detected if you are familiar with concepts such as parallelism, sequence of tenses, and noun-number agreement. There are also common sentence errors that involve inappropriate use of pronouns or word order.