SHSAT Revising and Editing Flashcards

Which revision best corrects the sentence: 'The students, who studied hard they passed the exam.'?

Answer: The students who studied hard passed the exam.

The original sentence has a redundant subject pronoun 'they'; removing it creates a correct relative clause construction.

Which transition word BEST connects these two sentences: 'Maria practiced piano every day. _____, she performed flawlessly at the recital.'?

Answer: As a result

'As a result' correctly shows a cause-and-effect relationship between daily practice and a flawless performance.

Which sentence contains a misplaced modifier?

Answer: Jogging around the block, my shoes got wet.

In option D, 'jogging around the block' modifies 'my shoes,' which cannot jog — the modifier is misplaced.

A student writes: 'The committee made their decision quickly.' What issue, if any, exists in this sentence?

Answer: Pronoun-antecedent disagreement: 'committee' is singular, so 'its' is preferred in formal writing

In formal American English, collective nouns like 'committee' are singular and take singular pronouns like 'its,' though 'their' is increasingly accepted informally.

Which edit BEST improves the sentence: 'The reason why he failed is because he did not study.'?

Answer: He failed because he did not study.

'The reason is because' is redundant; the most concise and correct revision is 'He failed because he did not study.'

Which sentence uses the semicolon correctly?

Answer: He was tired; however, he finished his homework.

A semicolon correctly joins two independent clauses, especially when followed by a conjunctive adverb like 'however.'

A paragraph about climate change ends with this sentence: 'My favorite color is blue.' What is the PRIMARY problem with this sentence?

Answer: It is off-topic and disrupts paragraph unity.

The sentence is irrelevant to the topic of climate change, violating paragraph unity by introducing an unrelated idea.