English Language Arts
What the section covers
SHSAT ELA pairs reading passages - literary, informational, and sometimes poetry - with revising-and-editing items built around a short draft. Reading questions cluster into predictable types: main idea, stated detail, inference, vocabulary in context, author's purpose, structure, and tone. Revising items test sentence boundaries, subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference, modifier placement, parallelism, transitions, and concision.
Traps to expect
The most common wrong answers are true statements that do not answer the question asked. Others use extreme language (always, never, all, proves) that the passage cannot support; correct inferences are usually hedged (suggests, likely, mainly). Vocabulary questions want the meaning that fits the sentence, not the most familiar dictionary sense. On revision items, watch for comma splices, groups of words with no main clause, pronouns with two possible antecedents, and opening modifiers that describe the wrong noun.
Worked example
Draft sentence: The orchestra, after tuning for twenty minutes, they began the overture. Two subjects compete for one verb. Strip the interrupting phrase and the error is obvious: The orchestra ... they began is wrong. Fix it as After tuning for twenty minutes, the orchestra began the overture, and confirm the opening phrase describes the orchestra rather than the tuning.
Rule of thumb
A sentence needs exactly one independent clause unless clauses are properly joined - with a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so, yet). If a period would work, a comma alone will not.