Conventions of Standard Written English
What the domain tests
The Conventions of Standard Written English domain tests your ability to edit prose for grammar, usage, punctuation, and sentence structure. Multiple-choice items usually present a sentence with an underlined portion and ask for the best revision, so the correct choice must be grammatically sound and clear in context. The exam emphasizes errors that change meaning or obscure logic, not obscure terminology.
Agreement and reference
A verb agrees with its grammatical subject, not with a noun in an intervening phrase: The box of files is on the desk, not are. Indefinite pronouns such as each, either, neither, everyone, and anybody are singular in formal edited English. Collective nouns (committee, team, audience) generally take singular verbs in American usage when the group acts as a unit. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number and gender; recast a sentence in the plural if a singular pronoun sounds awkward.
Structure and punctuation
Check for fragments, comma splices, and run-ons. A semicolon joins two independent clauses; a colon follows an independent clause to introduce a list or explanation. Commas set off nonessential information but not essential clauses. A dangling modifier occurs when an introductory phrase does not logically modify the sentence's subject.
Parallelism and comparisons
Items in a series and after correlative conjunctions (not only...but also; either...or) must share grammatical form. Use fewer with count nouns and less with mass nouns; between for two and among for three or more; like as a preposition and as to introduce a clause.
Worked example
Walking through the museum, the paintings impressed the students. The opening participial phrase describes the students, but the sentence makes the paintings the walkers. Revision: Walking through the museum, the students were impressed by the paintings. The subject immediately after the comma now performs the action in the modifier.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing a revision that fixes agreement but creates a comma splice.
- Treating however as a conjunction: The plan is costly, however it is necessary needs a semicolon or period before however.
- Missing a singular antecedent with they.
- Using an apostrophe for a plural (the 1990s) or omitting it in a possessive (the students work).
- Assuming a long sentence is automatically wrong; complexity is fine if boundaries are clear.