Sentence Improvement: English Grammar

Idea: A highlighted portion of a sentence may contain a grammatical, structural, or idiomatic error. Choose the replacement that corrects the error while preserving the intended meaning.
Rule: Check subject-verb agreement, tense, pronoun agreement, parallelism, preposition usage, and idiomatic expressions. Do not select an option that changes the original meaning unnecessarily.
Example:
Problem: The committee have submitted its report.
Solution:
Step 1: Identify the subject “committee.” In standard American English, a collective noun referring to a unit takes a singular verb.
Step 2: “Have submitted” is plural, so it should be changed to the singular form “has submitted.”
Step 3: The pronoun “its” correctly agrees with the singular collective noun.
Answer: The committee has submitted its report.

Idea: Sentence improvement questions may test whether a sentence can express the same idea more clearly, directly, and concisely.
Rule: Remove redundant expressions, unnecessary words, and awkward constructions. Prefer precise wording and straightforward sentence structures without altering the intended meaning.
Example:
Problem: There is no doubt but that the results of the experiment were conclusive in nature.
Solution:
Step 1: Identify the unnecessary construction “there is no doubt but that.” It can be simplified to “no doubt.”
Step 2: Remove the redundant phrase “in nature” because “conclusive” already expresses the intended meaning.
Step 3: Rewrite the sentence using concise and natural wording.
Answer: No doubt the experiment results were conclusive.

Idea: A modifier must be positioned close to the word or phrase it describes. Incorrect placement can create ambiguity or an illogical meaning.
Rule: Place adjectives near the nouns they modify and participial phrases immediately beside their intended subjects. Ensure that an introductory modifier is followed by the person or thing performing the action described by that modifier.
Example:
Problem: Walking through the park, the flowers looked beautiful.
Solution:
Step 1: Identify the introductory phrase “Walking through the park.” It describes someone who is walking.
Step 2: The grammatical subject following the phrase is “the flowers.” Flowers cannot perform the action of walking, so the sentence contains a dangling modifier.
Step 3: Supply the person performing the action as the subject of the main clause.
Answer: Walking through the park, I thought the flowers looked beautiful.

Sentence Improvement Concepts