GMAT Book Excerpt Exclusive! Sentence Correction 101

Sentence Correction (SC) is one of three question types found in the Verbal section of the GMAT. Sentence Correction tests your mastery of both grammar and meaning as they apply to conventional written English.

SC questions typically comprise about one–third of the questions in the Verbal section. They tend to be the fastest of the three question types that appear in the Verbal section, so learning to work efficiently is especially important. To that end, you’ll need to build a strong process for working through SC problems.

Question Format

Take a look at this SC problem:

Although William Pereira first gained national recognition for his set designs for such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he was more commonly remembered now as the architect of the Transamerica Tower and the designer of the master plan for the city of Irvine, California.

1. such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he was more commonly remembered now
2. such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he is now more commonly remembered
3. such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, but now he will be more commonly remembered
4. movies such as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he would be more commonly remembered now
5. movies such as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, but he is now more commonly remembered

The question consists of a given sentence, part of which is underlined. The underlined segment may be short or it may comprise most or even all of the original sentence. The five answer choices are possible replacements for the underlined segment.

In all SC questions, choice (A) is exactly the same as the underlined portion of the sentence above it; in other words, you would select answer (A) if you think nothing is wrong with the original sentence. The other four choices will always offer different options. Your task is to select the answer that creates the best sentence of the choices given, in terms of both grammar and meaning. (It might not be the best way that you can think to write the sentence yourself.)

By the way, each of the five answer choices is correct approximately 20 percent of the time, including answer choice (A)—that is, the original sentence is correct approximately 20 percent of the time (though that’s not the case on this particular problem). Because the original sentence is wrong about 80 percent of the time, you may find yourself unconsciously avoiding it closer to 100 percent of the time; just remember that every answer choice has an approximately equal chance of being the correct answer.

The Sentence Correction Process

Because the other two Verbal question types, Critical Reasoning (CR) and Reading Comprehension (RC), require so much reading, you’re going to have to move quickly on Sentence Correction (SC). In fact, you’ll need to average about 1 minute and 20 seconds per SC question.

As a result, you’ll need a standard process to help you work through any SC question efficiently and effectively.

Here’s the basic process:

 

Try the process with the William Pereira example:

Although William Pereira first gained national recognition for his set designs for such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he was more commonly remembered now as the architect of the Transamerica Tower and the designer of the master plan for the city of Irvine, California.

1. such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he was more commonly remembered now
2. such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he is now more commonly remembered
3. such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, but now he will be more commonly remembered
4. movies such as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he would be more commonly remembered now
5. movies such as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, but he is now more commonly remembered

 

Step 1: Take a First Glance

Don’t start reading yet. Just take a first glance to spot clues that may help you answer the question. You may not notice much at first; you’ll get better with practice!

How long is the underline? What’s happening where the underline starts?

In the Pereira problem, the underline is relatively short. It starts after the word for and the first underlined word is such.

The word such by itself isn’t a huge clue, so read a couple more words: such movies as. The phrase such as is used to introduce examples of something. Now you know that the sentence is going to give examples and discuss something about movies.

This is the equivalent of noticing right away on a quant question that there’s a diagram of a triangle or that the problem text contains a quadratic equation. You don’t have enough information to solve the problem, of course, but you have some context about what it is testing. In the Pereira problem, you now know something about the overall meaning and at least part of the organization of the sentence.

You can take this first glance one step further. On SC, the beginning of the five answers will almost always contain at least one difference, so glance at the first word or two of each choice. The “split,” or difference among the answers, is such movies as vs. movies such as.

People more commonly say movies such as, but it’s also acceptable to say such movies as, as long as that word in the middle (movies, in this case) is the category for which you’re about to give examples. In other words, both variations are fine.

When the test gives you a split for which both variations are okay, it’s called a Red Herring. A red herring is a distraction—the test is trying to get you to waste time debating two (or three or more!) variations, when the different forms are all acceptable.

So, you’ve taken your first glance; now what? The last word of the five answers will also almost always contain at least one difference. Most of the time, glancing at the beginning of the choices will be enough to give you your first clue and then you’d go to step 2. In this case, though, the beginning of the choices contained a red herring, so glance at the end of each choice as well.

At the end, the split is between remembered now and just plain remembered. It could be that the word now moves around in other choices or that the word now disappears entirely from some choices. The movement or disappearance of a time marker often affects the meaning of a sentence.

So, with the investment of perhaps 5 to 10 seconds, you know several things. The sentence is going to be about movies and give examples of movies. You won’t waste time debating the movies such as and such movies as split, but you will keep an eye on the meaning of the sentence—in particular, when are things happening (now vs. some other time)?

Step 2: Read the sentence for meaning

Next, read the entire original sentence. It’s natural to focus on grammar as you solve SC problems; the title of this step emphasizes meaning because most people forget to think about the meaning, even though meaning is just as important as grammar!

A sentence can be grammatically correct and yet illogical or ambiguous:

Anne and Millie went to the movies in her car.

Wait a minute—whose car did they take? Anne’s? Millie’s? Someone else’s? The sentence is ambiguous.

As you read, pay attention to both the overall meaning and the underlying grammar. Don’t think about how to fix anything yet; just notice what the possible issues are.

What does the William Pereira sentence say?

Although William Pereira first gained national recognition for his set designs for such movies as Reap the Wild Wind and Jane Eyre, he was more commonly remembered now as the architect of the Transamerica Tower and the designer of the master plan for the city of Irvine, California.

The sentence begins with a contrast word (although), and that word is not part of the underline, so it can’t change. As you read the rest of the sentence, pay attention to the contrast that it’s trying to convey.

Extract the “core” of the sentence: 

Although WP first gained recognition for one thing, he was remembered for other, quite different things.

That basic meaning does make sense. Did anything else jump out at you? The end of the sentence says this:

… he was more commonly remembered now …

Was remembered is in the past, but now is in the present. Using those two time markers together is illogical.

When something jumps out as a possible issue, jot down a word or two to help you remember, then keep reading. In this case, you might jot down something like “was … now?”

Step 3: Find a starting point

Most SC problems test multiple issues, and those issues can appear anywhere in the sentence. Your task at this stage is to decide where to start. 

If you’ve spotted an issue in the original sentence that you know for sure is incorrect, you can cross off answer (A), as that answer always repeats the text of the original sentence.

For example, let’s say that you start with the “was . . . now?” issue. It doesn’t make sense to say that he was remembered in the present (now), so the original sentence is incorrect. Cross off answer (A).

Step 4: Eliminate all incorrect choices

Make that first issue keep working for you. Whenever you find an error in one choice, your next step is to check the remaining answer choices for that exact same error or a closely related error. Do any of the other choices have a similar illogical meaning?

Work efficiently. Scan the five answer choices vertically only for that portion of the text. In other words, do not read the full text of all five answers:

(A)	… he was more commonly remembered now
(B)	… he is now more commonly remembered
(C)	… but now he will be more commonly remembered
(D)	… he would be more commonly remembered now
(E)	… but he is now more commonly remembered

The word now moves around, but it is always in the sentence, so the verb tense needs to be consistent with the meaning of now.

The hypothetical he would be … remembered now is illogical in this sentence, so answer (D) is incorrect. It’s also not great to say now he will be remembered, as in answer (C). While you might hear someone say something like, “Now, I will go to the store,” that person should really say, “I am leaving now” (as she leaves) or “In a few minutes, I will leave for the store.” 

So answers (A), (C), and (D) are out. Three down, two to go!

Repeat!

Find another starting point and repeat steps 3 and 4. After a repetition or two, you’ll either get down to one answer or get stuck. Either way, pick an answer and move on to the next problem.

Now, where are you going to find these new starting points? You have two main options:

1. Tackle other errors that you’ve already spotted.
2. Compare the remaining answer choices vertically, looking for differences, or splits.

Spot a difference, then ask yourself whether you think that difference is straightforward to address. If so, go for it. If not, ignore that difference and look for a different one that you think is more straightforward—don’t waste time agonizing over an annoying split. SC questions will almost always offer you multiple paths to the correct answer, so take the path that is easiest and fastest for you.

In the Pereira example, answers (B) and (E) remain. Compare them vertically—what’s different? Answer (E) starts with the word but; this word is not present in answer (B).

But indicates a contrast; this is a meaning issue, so remind yourself of the big picture of the sentence:

Although WP first gained recognition for one thing, he was remembered for other, quite different things.

The word although already conveys the contrast. A second contrast word would be redundant:

Although WP first gained recognition for one thing, but he was remembered for other, quite different things. ??

Eliminate answer (E). The correct answer is (B).

Step 3 Redux

Let’s go back to step 3 for a moment. What if you think a particular thing may be wrong but you’re not sure? 

Go straight to the answers and scan vertically for the text that you think might be an issue. Compare all five answers: What alternative wordings do the others contain for that text? These are your splits, or differences, for this particular issue. Use those splits to help you decide how to evaluate the issue (or whether to look for a different, easier issue).

Other times, you may spot a potential issue but not feel confident addressing it. In that case, forget about it—don’t waste any time agonizing about it. Go look for something else that is easier for you. (Most SC problems offer at least three splits.)

What if you don’t spot anything at all in the original sentence? (After all, that one is correct 20 percent of the time!) In this case, go straight to the answers and scan vertically to compare, looking for any splits. Use these splits to figure out what the sentence is testing. If you don’t feel comfortable handling any particular split, move on to the next one.

Sometimes, you may think you’ve spotted an issue in the original sentence, but when you check the answers, all five are identical (for that specific issue). In that case, go look for something else.

In all of these scenarios, regardless of whether you spot an error in the original sentence, you’ll always end up at the same next step: Compare the answers vertically, focusing on shorter “chunks” of the sentences to spot the differences. Use the splits to figure out your next steps.

There is one thing you do not want to do: Do not think about how you would rewrite the sentence yourself. There are many ways that a faulty sentence could be fixed, and you could waste a lot of time thinking of different ways to do so. Instead, let the splits drive your process.

The SC Process

Here’s a summary of the process:

1. Take a First Glance

Look for an early clue that will help orient you to the problem—similar to noticing a certain math symbol on a quant problem. Don’t spend more than 5 to 10 seconds on this step.

Glance at the beginning of the underline. Notice the word (including punctuation marks) just before the underline and the first one to three words of the underline itself. Then, glance at the beginning of each answer choice to see how the beginning of the underlined text changes.

Most of the time, this will be enough to give you an early clue. If it’s not, try one more place: the end of the underline. Then, go to step 2, even if you still haven’t found any early clue (you won’t find a hint 100 percent of the time).

2. Read the Sentence for Meaning

Read the entire original sentence. Don’t get so focused on grammar that you forget to process the meaning of the sentence. 

Jot down words (possibly abbreviated) when something jumps out at you as a possible issue. Don’t actually try to decide anything about that issue yet—just note the possibilities.

3. Find a Starting Point

Start with anything that feels straightforward to you. Often, you will spot something in the original sentence that you feel comfortable evaluating; immediately check the splits in the answer choices to see what your options are to fix the issue. 

Sometimes, you will not spot anything in the original sentence that you want to use; in this case, scan the answers vertically to find the differences.

Make your first decision—most of the time, this will be a choice between keeping or eliminating answer choice (A)—and then…

4. Eliminate All Incorrect Choices

Reuse your work! Check all of the remaining answers to see whether they have the same error (or a very similar one). On occasion, you can cross off all four wrong answers based on your first issue!

Most of the time, though, you will still have more than one answer remaining after you address your first issue

(As Needed) Repeat Steps 3 and 4

So, most of the time, you’ll need another starting point. By this time, you will likely have spotted multiple potential issues to investigate. Don’t review them in order. Choose whatever you think is easiest and repeat steps 3 and 4.

At some point, you’ll either have one answer left (choose it—you’re done!) or you’ll have more than one answer left but you’ll realize that you don’t feel comfortable with any of the remaining splits. In the latter case, don’t keep throwing time at this problem. Make the executive decision to pick an answer and move on. You’ll likely have narrowed down your answers, so you’ll be in position to make a strong guess.

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{Editor’s note: That’s it for our excerpt! We hope you learned something. If you like what you’ve read, you can find the rest of this chapter—and a lot more!—in Manhattan Prep’s GMAT All the Verbal book. If you’re looking for other free lessons and practice problems, sign up for a free Starter Kit syllabus on our site.}

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