Sentence Construction Flashcards
Parallelism in a series.
When you see a list of 3 or more items, check to see that the list is parallel with regard to parts of speech and with regard to prepositions and connectors.
incorrect: The candidate is predicted to lose narrowly in the South, win comfortably on the East Coast, and to dominate in the western states. (The word “to” before “lose” can belong to all three verbs in the list or to only the first; here it is repeated in the third, “dominate” making the second item not parallel.)
Correct: The candidate is predicted to lose narrowly in the South, win comfortably on the East Coast, and dominate in the western states.
Parallelism in common two-part constructions.
The constructions “Both X and Y”; “Not only X, but also Y”; “Either X or Y”; “Neither X nor Y”; and “Just as X, so Y” require parallel structure in both elements of the construction.
Incorrect: Stanford looks for students who excel in both the classroom and in the community. (The first portion after “both” is only a noun, “the classroom,” and therefore not parallel to the second portion, “in the community,” which gets an extra preposition.)
Correct: Stanford looks for students who excel in both the classroom and the community.
The use of a semicolon, which can be used to either separate two independent clauses (the most common way semicolons are tested) or to separate complex items in a list.
Incorrect: The company recently relocated its headquarters from San Francisco to Phoenix; a move that has made many employees upset. (The portion after the semicolon is not an independent clause – it could not stand alone as its own sentence – so the semicolon is improperly used.)
Correct: The company recently relocated its headquarters from San Francisco to Phoenix; the move has made many employees upset.
The other way punctuation is tested relates to commas linking independent clauses. When linking together two independent clauses (they could stand as independent sentences) with a connector like “and” or “but,” you must have a comma before the connector.
Incorrect: Applying to business school can be challenging for anyone but John learned to enjoy the process.
Correct: Applying to business school can be challenging for anyone, but John learned to enjoy the process. (In the incorrect version, most have to reread – is it challenging for “anyone but John”? Or does “but John” start an independent clause? The comma makes it clear that “but John” starts a new clause specifically about him.)
Logical connectors between independent clauses.
Remember: meaning matters in Sentence Correction, so it is important to make sure that the connector (“and” vs. “or” vs. “but,” etc.) conveys a logical meaning for the sentence.
Incorrect: The Great Lakes cover only 0.04% of the world’s surface area, and they contain over 20% of the world’s fresh water.
Correct: The Great Lakes cover only 0.04% of the world’s surface area, but they contain over 20% of the world’s fresh water.
Key Concept 1
Testing parallelism allows the GMAT to hide “a needle in a haystack” – often the items that break parallelism are prepositions and connectors, two- and three-letter words hidden in long sentences. Train yourself to notice the importance of these small words.
Key Concept 2
When you see words like “and,” “or,” and “but” in long sentences, check on either side to see if you’re dealing with a list or parallel construction.
Key Concept 3
Whenever you see a semicolon in a Sentence Correction problem, look to see whether it connects independent clauses (correct) or creates a sentence fragment (incorrect).
Trick 1
In complicated sentences involving construction errors, simplify the sentence by eliminating modifiers, adjectives, and adverbs so that you can assess the core elements to see if they are linked properly and logically.
Trick 2
With the common two-part (both…and; either…or; etc.) constructions, cover up everything from the first word of the construction (e.g. “both”) through the last word of the construction (e.g. “and”) and read the sentence that remains. If it is not a sound sentence, that tells you that parallelism has been broken and you can eliminate it.
Trick 3
Look for “structural” words (e.g. which, that, of) adjacent to connectors (and, or, but). When they appear, they generally demonstrate that the portion before the connector must include the same structural word in order to be parallel.
