English / Writing Skills
What this section tests
Writing Skills questions ask you to improve sentences and short passages: choosing the clearest, most grammatical version of an idea, fixing errors in agreement, tense, pronoun reference, and punctuation, and recognizing when a sentence is already correct.
Concepts to master
- Sentence completeness: every sentence needs a subject and a working verb. Watch for fragments (a dependent clause or phrase standing alone) and run-ons (two independent clauses joined with no punctuation or only a comma).
- Subject-verb agreement: find the real subject, ignoring interrupting phrases. Words like each, everyone, neither (alone) are singular; compound subjects joined by and are plural.
- Pronoun clarity: a pronoun must refer to one obvious noun. If two nouns could be the antecedent, revise for clarity rather than guessing.
- Verb tense consistency: keep tenses logical within a sentence; use past perfect only for the earlier of two past actions.
- Punctuation: use a comma before a coordinating conjunction joining two full clauses; use a semicolon between closely related full clauses; do not use a comma to splice two clauses.
Traps
- The answer that sounds most formal is not always correct - wordy or passive options often introduce new errors.
- "No change" is a real option; sometimes the original sentence is already best.
- A tempting fix may correct one error while creating another (e.g., fixing agreement but creating a fragment).
Rule of thumb
Read each option into the sentence and check three things in order: Is it a complete sentence? Do subject and verb agree? Is every pronoun clear? Eliminate any option that fails even one test.
Example: The box of old letters, which sat in the attic for years, were finally opened. The subject is box (singular), not letters, so the verb should be was: The box of old letters, which sat in the attic for years, was finally opened.