NOTICE ALL TITLES—THIS ONE INDICATES YOUR QUESTIONS ARE GOING TO BE ABOUT ‘IMPROVING’ SENTENCES. THEREFORE, MORE THAN ONE OPTION MAY BE GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT. THERE WILL BE A ‘BEST’ CHOICE.


Writing: Improving Sentences

LEARN ALL OF THE DIRECTIONS BEFORE THE TEST SO WELL THAT WHEN YOU READ THEM, YOU CAN READ THEM WITH DEEP UNDERSTANDING. READ THEM FOR EACH SECTION. NOTICE, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT ‘A’ IS THE CHOICE IN THIS SECTION FOR THE SENTENCE TO REMAIN THE SAME. SOME SECTIONS HAVE ‘E’ AS THE ‘NO ERROR’ CHOICE.


Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.
Choose the correct answer, and ELIMINATE the other answers.
WHEN YOU READ A SENTENCE WITH AN INTRODUCTORY MODIFYING CLAUSE LIKE THIS ONE, LOOK FOR THE ‘PERSON’ WHO IS DOING THE ACTION. IF THE UNDERLINED PORTION INDICATES THAT SOMETHING OTHER THAN A PERSON IS ACTING (election…serving should be Barbara Jordan serving), FIND AN OPTION THAT REMEDIES THIS COMMON ERROR! In these choices, B, D, and E solve this issue, but B adds unnecessary, awkward words (it , who) and D has an awkward verb tense (had been elected)

E is the only good choice, so it is definitely the BEST choice.

After serving two terms in the Texas State Senate, Barbara Jordan's election to the United States House of Representatives, where she served from 1973 to 1979.

(A) Barbara Jordan’s election

(B) it was Barbara Jordan who was elected

(C) it was Barbara Jordan’s election

(D) Barbara Jordan had been elected

(E) Barbara Jordan was elected  YES!