by Erica L. Meltzer | Jun 9, 2011 | ACT English/SAT Writing, Blog
When is a noun not a noun?
Answer: when it’s an adjective.
One of the ACT’s favorite ways to play with you is to take words that normally act like nouns — often professions such as author, architect, scientist, etc. — and use them as adjectives. This might not seem like much of a big deal, or even something you’d really need to pay attention to, except that it actually involves something the ACT absolutely loves to test: commas.
Consider the following: You probably wouldn’t write something like “I.M. Pei is a celebrated, architect.” Even if you don’t know that “famous” is an adjective and that “architect” is a noun, you can probably feel that the comma is wrong there; there’s no natural break in the sentence.
But what about this?
Glass is perhaps the building material most often associated with celebrated architect, I.M. Pei.
Suddenly that comma seems like it could be ok. Perhaps you learned that you always put a comma before a person’s name.
Well, sometimes you do, but sometimes you don’t. And this is one of those cases in which you don’t.
The reason is that “architect,” in this case,” is being used to describe I.M. Pei. Even though “architect” looks like a noun, it’s acting as an adjective here. And since adjectives should never be separated from the nouns they describe by a comma, you do not need to place one between “architect” and “I.M. Pei.”
by Erica L. Meltzer | Jun 8, 2011 | ACT English/SAT Writing
One of the ACT’s preferred tricks is to give you a sentence that looks like the following:
Millions of pedal-assisted electric bicycles have already been sold in Asian countries, such as China, where bicycles often serve as a cheap, yet efficient mode of transport.
A. NO CHANGE
B. cheap; yet efficient
C. cheap, yet efficient
D. cheap yet efficient
Because it seems natural to pause before the word yet many people’s instinct is to insert a comma at that point in the sentence.
However, the rule is that when two adjectives are separated by a conjunction (typically but or yet, although and could be tested as well), no comma should be used before the conjunction.
In this case, cheap and efficient are both adjectives, so no comma is necessary. The answer is therefore D.
You can also think of the rule this way: comma + but/yet = period.
When you plug in a period, you get nonsense:
Millions of pedal-assisted electric bicycles have already been sold in Asian countries, such as China, where bicycles often serve as a cheap. Efficient mode of transport.
If a period doesn’t work, neither does comma + but/yet.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Jun 6, 2011 | ACT English/SAT Writing, The New SAT
This post was inspired by Robin Koerner’s little rant in the Huffington Post about his encounter with a job applicant who had a 3.9 GPA but no idea of how to use an apostrophe correctly.
While you can, in real life, break some of the grammatical rules the SAT and ACT test without anyone really noticing, you cannot break this one. Sure, your high school or even your college teachers may overlook it, but if you screw this up on your resume or even in an email to a potential employer or college interviewer, it may very well be noticed and count very seriously against you. In many cases, it can lead to a flat-out rejection. Employers actually don’t care about your critical-thinking skills unless you can express yourself in basic, coherent English. If you don’t believe me, check out this article from the Washington Post. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Jun 5, 2011 | ACT Reading
The wording of “main function” questions can be very misleading: after all, they inevitably ask about the main function of a paragraph in relation to the passage as a whole. The thing is, though, you don’t really have to really have to deal with the entire passage when trying to answer them. You don’t even have to deal with the entire paragraph that’s being asked about.
In general, you really only have to deal with a few key sentences: most often, the answer will be found in the first two sentences of the paragraph in question, although in some cases you may need to back up and read the last sentence of the previous paragraph.
As always, you should pay special attention to any major transition words (but, however, furthermore, etc.) or “interesting” forms of punctuation (semicolons, colons, quotation marks) that indicate the relationship between the preceding idea and the current idea.
To reiterate: The first sentence of the paragraph referred to in the question will often not give you the necessary information, so it’s important that you read the first two sentences. Normally the ACT asks about paragraphs that shift the focus from one idea to another, so be particularly on the lookout for anything that suggests contradiction.
Let’s look at an example:
2017/2018 practice test, section 3, question #16:
One of the main purposes of the last paragraph is to state that the:
F. gashes in the rift valley continue to increase in width.
G. seafloor of Atlantic has cooled.
H. entire Atlantic seafloor has issued from the gashes in the rift valley.
J. volcanoes on Earth’s dry land have created the newest, youngest pieces of Atlantic seafloor.
Strategy: The first thing we’re going to do is read the first two sentences of the last paragraph. We do not need to consider any other information.
Yet, what had seemed so foreign to scientists is an integral part of earth’s very being, for at the ridge our own planet gives birth. The floor of the rift valley is torn; from the gashes has sprung the seafloor underlying all of Atlantic.
It’s important to stress here that we don’t even need to know what’s going on in the passage to determine the function of the last paragraph. The paragraph itself provides all the information we need.
The first sentence doesn’t offer a lot of help, but the second sentence is key (note the semicolon). It tells us that the seafloor of the entire Atlantic has sprung from the floor of the rift valley, which is exactly what H says.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Jun 4, 2011 | ACT English/SAT Writing
Would, could, should, might OF = wrong
Would, could, should, might HAVE = right
This is among the ACT’s favorite rules to test.
Why?
Because in spoken English, the words are contracted so that would have becomes would’ve, which is pronounced like would of. As a result, a lot of people very logically assume that would’ve = would of. But in reality, this construction does not actually exist.
So, for example:
Incorrect: If my parents had not forced me to attend Chinese school, I never would of developed an appreciation for the traditions of Chinese New Year.
Correct: If my parents had not forced me to attend Chinese school, I never would have developed an appreciation for the traditions of Chinese New Year.
