SAT Writing Practice Exam with Complete Solutions

Commas - ANSWER--lists - on each side of an appositive - sperate dependent and independent clauses - before a conjunction separating to independent clauses : (FANBOYS) - surrounding interjections : (of course, on the other hand, however, likewise) Ex: "He fell in love, but still hasn't proposed" "Charlotte, of course, was studying hard in her room" Apostrophe - ANSWER-- possession: after noun of possession (Alison's) - contractions: replace missing letters Ex: "You've never..." "Dad's car..." Semicolon - ANSWER-- separate 2 INDEPENDENT CLAUSES **when in doubt leave it out** Ex: "Madelynn left for school on Friday; however, she will return in October for Fall break." Colon - ANSWER--after independent clause to introduce a follow up statement : (a list, an explanation, a place) Ex: "Specific wasps are essential for figs: they go in and fertilize the plant thoroughly leaving their babies behind." Dash - ANSWER-- take the place of other punctuation : (commas, parentheses) Ex: "Princeton - a college in New Jersey- is a well known university." Fragments - ANSWER-To Fix: - subtract words - add words - use appropriate punctuation Ex: "While they were walking: the sun was shining." "Unless he fell on the curb." Wrong Connector - ANSWER--use connector that reflects the relationship - omit unnecessary connectors that don't make sense Ex: "She loved to sleep, likewise, she goes to bed at two in the morning everyday." Run - On - ANSWER-- make one clause dependent on the other clause - use comma and conjunction (FANBOYS) to form a compound sentence - use a semicolon - spirit into 2 sentences with a period : (2 independent clauses) Ex: "People are addicted to their phones and they always feel the need to look at social media and respond to texts. " Parallelism Error - ANSWER-- make sure words & phrases are consistent in form, structure , and punctuation