Sentence Structure and Completion
What the domain tests
This domain covers sentence types (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex), clause recognition, and the logic of filling blanks in longer texts. You need to recognise independent and dependent clauses, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, and the transition words that signal addition, contrast, cause, example, or sequence.
Traps to watch
- Fragment and run-on errors. A dependent clause alone is not a sentence; two independent clauses joined only by a comma form a comma splice.
- Wrong logical connector. However signals contrast; therefore signals result; for instance signals example. A grammatically fine connector can still be logically wrong.
- Parallelism breaks. Items in a list or comparison must share grammatical form.
- Misplaced correlatives. Not only ... but also and either ... or must frame matching structures.
- Missing subject or verb in long sentences. Length hides omissions.
Rule of thumb
For blank-filling, read the sentence before and after the gap to determine the relationship between ideas, then choose the connector that expresses that relationship. For structure questions, label each clause as independent or dependent and check the punctuation joining them.
Worked example
The experiment failed ______ the team had checked every variable. The ideas contrast, so although fits; because would wrongly imply the checking caused the failure.