SATs Writing Skills & Essay 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sentence uses a semicolon correctly?
- She studied hard; and passed the test.
- She studied hard; she passed the test. (Correct answer)
- She studied; hard and passed.
- She; studied hard and passed the test.
Correct answer: She studied hard; she passed the test.
A semicolon joins two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction.
Question 2: In the SAT Writing section, which error does 'the team celebrated their victory' most likely contain?
- Comma splice
- Subject-verb disagreement
- Pronoun-antecedent disagreement (Correct answer)
- Dangling modifier
Correct answer: Pronoun-antecedent disagreement
'Team' is a collective noun treated as singular in American English, so the pronoun should be 'its,' not 'their.'
Question 3: A student writes: 'Running through the park, the flowers were beautiful.' What is wrong?
- Comma splice
- Dangling modifier (Correct answer)
- Faulty parallelism
- Misplaced apostrophe
Correct answer: Dangling modifier
The participial phrase 'Running through the park' illogically modifies 'flowers' rather than a person.
Question 4: Which transition word best signals a contrast between two ideas?
- Furthermore
- Therefore
- Nevertheless (Correct answer)
- Similarly
Correct answer: Nevertheless
'Nevertheless' introduces a contrasting idea despite what was previously stated.
Question 5: For the SAT essay, evidence is MOST effective when it:
- Is drawn exclusively from personal experience
- Consists of emotional appeals without factual support
- Directly supports the claim and is explained in context (Correct answer)
- Covers as many unrelated topics as possible
Correct answer: Directly supports the claim and is explained in context
Strong essay evidence is relevant, well-chosen, and explained to show how it supports the argument.
Question 6: Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
- However the results were surprising.
- However, the results were surprising. (Correct answer)
- However the results, were surprising.
- However; the results were surprising.
Correct answer: However, the results were surprising.
Introductory conjunctive adverbs like 'however' must be followed by a comma.
Question 7: In SAT Writing, 'DELETE the underlined portion' is often the best answer when the underlined text is:
- A key piece of evidence
- Redundant or irrelevant to the passage (Correct answer)
- The main claim of the paragraph
- A complex sentence with multiple clauses
Correct answer: Redundant or irrelevant to the passage
The SAT tests conciseness; redundant or off-topic text should be deleted to improve the passage.
SATs Writing Skills & Essay 2
Which sentence uses a semicolon correctly?