Identifying Parallel Structure Errors

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SAT Writing › Identifying Parallel Structure Errors

Questions 1 - 10
1

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

She aspired to someday live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, and traveling through the country. No error

through

live in

traveling

someday

No error

Explanation

This sentence has a problem with parallelism. The items in the list should be formatted the same. The corrected sentence reads, "She aspired to someday live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, and travel through the country."

2

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

Although it was easy for Mary to identify the problem, she found it more difficult to communicate with the technical crew and solving it. No error

solving it

Although

found

more difficult

No error

Explanation

This sentence has a problem with parallelism. The verbs “communicate” and “solving” should be formatted in the same way, since they are the two things it was "more difficult" for Mary to do. Since only "solving it," and not "communicate," is underlined, "solving it" contains the sentence's error and is the correct answer. The corrected sentence reads, "Although it was easy for Mary to identify the problem, she found it more difficult to communicate with the technical crew and solve it."

3

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

Important things to remember when adding fractions include creating a common denominator and reduce. No error

reduce

to remember

when adding

include

No error

Explanation

The forms of verbs used in a list need to agree for the sentence to use proper parallelism. Because the sentence begins its list of two items with "creating," "reduce" should be changed to "reducing" in order to match the form of "creating." So, the corrected sentence would read, "Important things to remember when adding fractions include creating a common denominator and reducing."

4

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

The evening's entertainment consisted of a jazz quartet, a juggler, and playing musical chairs. No error

playing musical chairs

evening's entertainment

consisted of

jazz

No error

Explanation

The three elements in the list should be formatted in the same way. Since the first two are just nouns without verbals, the third should be too. The corrected sentence reads, "The evening's entertainment consisted of a jazz quartet, a juggler, and a game of musical chairs."

5

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

At the student art showcase, Anna enjoyed seeing her friend Zoe's abstract paintings, which she thought were more creative than other artists. No error

than other artists

Zoe's

paintings, which

were

No error

Explanation

The correct answer is "than other artists." As the sentence reads, it is saying that Anna thinks her friend's art is more creative than other artists, which is an incorrect comparison; she should be comparing her friend's art to the art of other artists, not to the artists themselves.

A correct phrasing would be "At the student art showcase, Anna enjoyed seeing her friend Zoe's abstract paintings, which she thought were more creative than the works of the other artists."

6

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

I must admit that your mom's chocolate chip cookies are quite tasty, but they are not as good as my grandmother—hers are the best! No error

as my grandmother

must admit

as good

at the mall

No error

Explanation

When making comparisons you must be careful to compare like things. In this case, the sentence as written makes a comparison between "cookies" and "my grandmother." You want to compare cookies to cookies. You can fix this error by making "grandmother" into a possessive, singular noun, "grandmother's." This way, it is inferred that the subject being spoken about is the speaker's grandmother's cookies, not the speaker's grandmother herself.

7

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, who was the twenty-sixth president of the United States, enjoyed skinny-dipping, hiking, and wrote about history. No error

wrote

who

enjoyed

skinny-dipping

No error

Explanation

This sentence's error is faulty parallelism. The first two of the three things listed as Roosevelt's hobbies are presented in the form of gerunds, verbs that end ing "-ing" and act as nouns. The third hobby should follow the previous examples and be written as "writing about history" instead of "wrote about history."

8

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

There are two things Jean knows how to do well: how to cook and mountain-climbing. No error

mountain-climbing

are

knows

how to

No error

Explanation

The sentence needs to remain parallel. If it had said "cooking," "mountain-climbing" would be ok.

9

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

In his training course, Marvin learned how to address customer concerns, fill out budget requests, and setting up a company account. No error

and setting up

In

course, Marvin

customer

No error

Explanation

This sentence has a problem with parallelism. The items in its list aren't all formatted in the same way: the first two things that we're told Marvin learns to do in his training course are "address customer concerns" and "fill out budget requests," each of these phrases beginning with an infinitive verb. The third thing that Marvin learns to do is "setting up a company account"; in contrast to the previous two infinitive phrases, "setting up a company account" is unnecessarily conjugated to be in the present progressive tense. Since changing the first two items to be in the present progressive tense (as well as the rest of the sentence to make this work grammatically) isn't an option, the answer "and setting up" contains the sentence's error. You could correct the sentence by changing "and setting up" to "and set up," making the corrected sentence, "In his training course, Marvin learned how to address customer concerns, fill out budget requests, and set up a company account."

10

Select the underlined word or phrase that needs to be changed to make the sentence correct. Some sentences contain no error at all.

That performance has been seen by more people than any musical made in the past decade. No error

any musical

has been seen

than

in

No error

Explanation

The word "other" should be included in a comparison of one thing with a group, so the correct phrase is "any other musical" and "any musical" contains the sentence's error.

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