ACT English and The Elements of Style

Concise means

Economical -- using as few words as possible

Fix this and name the problem: Take your coat, hiking boots, and you'd better buy water.

Take your coat, hiking boots, and water. (#15 parallelism)

If you find the coordinating conjunction "not only," you must follow with

"but also"

Fix this and name the rule violation: As a destination, Nova Scotia has temperate weather, dramatic landscapes, and it has a lot of great places to eat.

. . . temperate weather, dramatic landscapes, and great restaurants. (#15 Parallelism)

On the ACT English section, omit the underlined portion is correct what percentage of the time?

66%

Fix the problem and name the rule violation: The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time is to travel on foot.

Add comma after time; Rule: enclose parenthetical clauses between commas (#3)

Name the rule violation: I felt lost the entire time, I walked around the campus for hours.

Do not place a comma to join two independent clauses. (#5)

Two non-academic strategies that are very important

Eating breakfast and getting plenty of sleep

Name the real subject: The car was driven to the police station by me.

I

If the sentence seems lengthy, consider which rule?

I Rule #13 Omit needless words

Fix the problem: The corpse was moved to the back bedroom by me.

I moved the corpse to the back bedroom.

Fix this and name the rule violation: My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.

I will always remember my first visit to Boston. #11 Passive vs Active voice

Name the rule violation: The reason I believe the sun's energy should be harnessed is, being that the sun is an inexhaustible resource, it should be used.

Omit needless words (#13)

Name the rule violation and give the word that causes the problem. "First, your argument is not logical. Also, you should not use yourself as an example. Third, you do not represent all the customers of Wal-Mart."

Parallelism (15)/Also

On all sections use this strategy

Process of elimination

Making sure the subject is up front and doing an action rather than being acted upon is a good way to solve which rule violation?

Rule #11: Active versus Passive Voice

Fix this and name the problem: We will not get there in time. It will be past ten before we arrive.

Since it will be past ten before we arrive, we will not get there on time. (Do not break sentences in two, #6)

Fix this: Being in a dilapidated condition, I was able to buy the old Camaro for little money.

Since the car was in a dilapidated condition, I . . .

Re-word the sentence and give the grammatical issue: The moon being aligned with Earth and the sun when full or new, so its gravity combines with the sun's gravity to create an even stronger gravitational pull.

Since the moon is aligned with the Earth and the sun when full or new, its gravity combines with the sun's gravity to create an even stronger gravitational pull . . . (parallelism 15)

Fix this and name the problem: Being ruined from years of neglect, I could not get the vintage car ready for the show in Gatlinburg.

Since the vintage car was ruined from years of neglect, I could not get it ready for the show in Gatlinburg. (Rule #7, Keep related words together -- participial phrases must modify their subjects/#13 Omit Needless words)

If a question is taking too much time, what should your strategy be?

Skip, move on, and use additional time later to guess if you don't know.

if given the choice in the following sentence to use a period, semi-colon, or comma, which one should never be used to punctuate the sentence? "It is nearly past five we cannot reach town before dark."

comma

Marrying together two independent clauses using a comma is a mistake known as a

comma splice

parenthetical means

non-essential or interruptive

Parallelism is all about keeping an established _________.

pattern

Fix the problem and name the rule violation: She went to the movies but she decided to walk out after the first scene.

place a comma after movies: Rule 4: Place a comma before And or but preceding an independent clause.

Two independent clauses put together with no punctuation is one form of a

run-on sentence

Give the offending word and the problem: I grew up with buckets, shovels, and nets waiting by the back door; hip-waders hanging in the closet; tide table charts covering the refrigerator door; and a microscope was sitting on the kitchen table.

was/parallelism (15)