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A Sentence Correction question looks like this:
1. When Charlene goes to the park, she
likes to run, swim, and to play basketball.
A. she likes to run, swim, and to play basketball
B. she likes to run, swim, and play basketball
C. she likes running, to swim, and to play
basketball
D. she likes running, swimming, and to play
basketball
E. she likes all of the following, to run,
swim, and to play basketball
You're given: a sentence with one section
underlined, and five answer choices. The
underlined portion is reproduced five different ways in the answer
choices - choice A will always be identical to the underlined portion
of the sentence. Your task is to find the answer choice which is most
grammatically correct according to the rules of Standard Written English.
Sometimes more than one answer choice will appear to be free of grammatical
errors. This is not a mistake. Style conventions must be taken into
consideration as well: when this occurs, you must look for the answer
that is most concise, and/or is free of redundancy.
The basic approach to Sentence Correction questions is as follows:
Read the complete sentence. Do not simply read
the underlined part of the sentence, because context may be important
in determining the correct answer. As mentioned above, choice
A will always be a copy of the original underlined part
of the sentence. If you cannot find any errors, grammatical or otherwise,
in the original sentence, choose A, and move on. Don't worry about
spelling, capitalization, or punctuation; they are not covered in
Sentence Correction questions. If you do find an error in the underlined
portion, or if you're not sure, proceed to step two.
The GMAT tests only a limited number of grammar error types. After you've read the sentence, look for clues indicating what grammar
rule the question is testing. These grammar rules, and
the clues to look for, will be covered in more detail in the next
section. Keep an eye out for:
Agreement Issues: Look for pronouns, verbs, and
nouns: do they agree?
Modifiers: Look for introductory phrases set off
by a comma: is the modifier used correctly?
Parallels: Look for commas separating words in
a list, as well as expressions such as not only...but also, both..and, either...or, neither...nor:
is everything parallel?
After you've dissected the question, compare answer choices and
note how they differ. Look for the answer choice that preserves
the meaning of the original sentence without creating new errors. Eliminate answer choices with grammar errors. Use the process of
elimination scrap paper charts to narrow your choices.
Now that you have a method under your belt
for approaching the questions, it's time to move on to specifics:
how to recognize, and correct, the eight common grammar errors found
in the GMAT.
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