SLE Test of Written Expression common mistakes
SLE Test of Written Expression · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Choosing the answer that sounds most formal or academic, even when it introduces wordiness, inflated diction, or a register mismatch with the rest of the passage.
Candidates assume a written-expression test rewards ornate vocabulary, so they equate complexity with correctness and pick 'utilize' over 'use' or 'commence' over 'begin' even when the plain word fits the sentence better.
What to do instead
Before selecting, ask whether the word is the one a careful editor would keep in a plain professional sentence. Prefer the simpler synonym unless the context is explicitly technical or ceremonial, and treat any option that adds syllables without adding meaning as a distractor.
Fixing a punctuation error in one clause while leaving a comma splice or run-on intact in the same sentence.
Candidates focus narrowly on the underlined or bracketed segment and stop scanning at the period, so they never check whether the two independent clauses are properly joined.
What to do instead
After any punctuation edit, re-read the entire sentence boundary to boundary and count independent clauses. Confirm each pair is joined by a period, semicolon, colon, or a coordinating conjunction with a comma, not by a comma alone.
Matching a pronoun or verb to the nearest noun rather than to the actual grammatical subject, especially across prepositional phrases.
Proximity attraction: the ear latches onto the last noun before the verb ('the box of files were'), and long interrupting phrases erode the working memory of the true subject.
What to do instead
Mentally delete every prepositional phrase between subject and verb, then read subject and verb alone. For pronouns, trace the antecedent back explicitly and check number and person before choosing.
Leaving a sentence with a dangling or misplaced modifier because the opening phrase 'sounds fine'.
Introductory participial phrases are common in edited prose, so they feel natural; candidates do not verify that the noun immediately after the comma is the entity actually performing the action.
What to do instead
For every sentence opening with a participial or infinitive phrase, name the actor the phrase implies, then confirm that exact noun follows the comma. If it does not, either rename the actor in the main clause or rewrite the phrase as a full clause.
Accepting a sentence that is grammatically correct but breaks the passage's parallel structure or logical flow of ideas.
Candidates evaluate each sentence in isolation and never build a mental outline of the paragraph, so an answer that is locally fine but disrupts the sequence looks acceptable.
What to do instead
Skim the full passage first and jot a three- to five-word outline of each sentence's job. Then test any replacement against the outline: it must preserve the same logical relationship (cause, contrast, example, conclusion) and the same grammatical pattern as its neighbours.
Choosing a transition word by its general tone rather than by the precise logical relationship between the two sentences.
Words like 'however', 'therefore', and 'moreover' are learned as vague signals of contrast, result, or addition, and candidates do not check which direction the argument actually moves.
What to do instead
Label the relationship between the two sentences in plain words first ('this contradicts the previous claim', 'this is a consequence', 'this is a second example'), then select only the transition that matches that label exactly.
Over-correcting by inserting commas at every pause or before every conjunction, producing comma splices and unnecessary commas.
Candidates who have been told to 'read it aloud and put a comma where you pause' apply that heuristic to edited prose, where pauses do not map to syntactic boundaries.
What to do instead
Use structural tests instead of breath: comma before a coordinating conjunction only when it joins two independent clauses; no comma between a subject and its verb or between a verb and its object; commas around an element only if it is genuinely non-restrictive.
Missing subject-verb agreement or tense consistency inside long, inverted, or compound constructions, such as sentences beginning with 'There is' or containing 'not only ... but also'.
Inverted word order and compound subjects hide the grammatical subject, and shifting narrative time frames make tense errors invisible on a single read.
What to do instead
For inverted sentences, locate the true subject after the verb and test agreement there. For tense, identify the passage's anchor time on the first read and check every subsequent verb against it, flagging any unexplained shift.
Selecting an answer that fixes the flagged error but introduces a new one elsewhere in the sentence, such as a changed pronoun reference or a lost possessive apostrophe.
Candidates compare options only at the point of the original error and do not re-verify the untouched portions of the rewritten sentence.
What to do instead
After choosing a candidate, re-read the whole rewritten sentence once for each of four checks: agreement, pronoun reference, punctuation, and meaning. Reject any option that repairs the target error at the cost of a new one.
Treating an idiom or commonly confused word pair as interchangeable, picking 'effect' for 'affect', 'less' for 'fewer', or 'between' for 'among' without checking countability or grammatical role.
These pairs sound nearly identical in speech and are rarely distinguished in casual writing, so the candidate's ear offers no signal that a rule is being tested.
What to do instead
Memorise the small set of high-frequency pairs by grammatical slot rather than by sound: affect is usually a verb, effect usually a noun; fewer with countable plurals, less with mass nouns; between for two or pairwise relations, among for groups of three or more.