Writing and Grammar: Agreement, Modification, and Clarity
What the section tests
Grammar items test standard written English: subject-verb agreement, pronoun case and reference, modifier placement, parallelism, tense consistency, punctuation (commas, semicolons, apostrophes), and conciseness and logical connectives.
Core concepts
- Agreement: locate the true subject, ignoring interrupting phrases. "The list of approved applicants is long." Collective nouns (team, jury) are usually singular.
- Pronoun reference: every it, they, or which needs one unambiguous antecedent. "Between you and me" - object case after a preposition.
- Modifiers: an introductory phrase must describe the subject that immediately follows it.
- Parallelism: items in a series and comparisons share grammatical form - "auditing records, interviewing witnesses, and drafting reports."
- Punctuation: a semicolon joins two complete clauses; a comma alone creates a splice. A fragment lacks a main clause.
- Conciseness: prefer the shortest version that keeps meaning; cut redundancy ("advance planning," "return back").
Traps that cost points
- Long prepositional phrases hiding a singular subject.
- "Each," "every," "neither" treated as plural.
- Dangling or misplaced modifiers, especially with -ing openers.
- Shifts in tense or person mid-sentence.
- Answer choices that are grammatical but wordier or change the intended logic.
- Apostrophe confusion: its (possessive) vs. it's (it is).
Worked example
"Having reviewed the evidence, the report was filed by the investigator."
The opener "having reviewed the evidence" must modify the person reviewing - the investigator, not the report. Corrected: "Having reviewed the evidence, the investigator filed the report."
Rule of thumb: when an answer choice is grammatically correct, compare it to the original for meaning - the best answer preserves the intended logic.