Language Arts: Conventions, Sentences, and Revision
This domain carries the exam's core conventions content: grammar, usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, sentence structure, and the writing process from planning through revision, editing, and research.
Core rules and concepts
- Subject-verb agreement: locate the true subject and ignore phrases between it and the verb. Indefinite pronouns (each, everyone, somebody) take singular verbs; with 'or' or 'nor,' the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Pronouns need one clear antecedent and correct case: 'between you and me,' 'she and I went.'
- Punctuation: use a comma before a coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses; never join them with only a comma; a semicolon can join them; a colon follows a complete clause to introduce a list.
- Apostrophes: possession (the dog's bowl, the dogs' bowls) versus plurals (three dogs). 'Its' is possessive; 'it's' means 'it is.'
- Modifiers belong beside the word they describe. 'Walking to the store, the rain soaked Maya' is a dangling modifier because rain cannot walk.
- Revision favors combined, varied sentences, logical order, and removal of redundancy; editing checks capitalization of proper nouns and titles.
Worked example
Choose the correctly written sentence. A: 'The team, after practicing for weeks, they won the final.' B: 'After practicing for weeks, the team won the final.' B is correct. A doubles the subject with 'they,' and a version like 'After practicing for weeks, the trophy was won' would dangle, since a trophy cannot practice.
Traps that cost marks
- Comma splices that sound natural in speech.
- Making a verb agree with a nearby noun instead of with the subject.
- Accepting an answer because it sounds formal, even when it is ungrammatical.
- Missing a second error in the far half of a long sentence after finding one earlier.