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The Best Way to Answer Structure Items In English Language

joeleebassy | Dec 21, 2009 |

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If the answer choices are fairly short, you should begin by taking a quick look at the answer choices to get an idea of what to look for when you read the sentence. A look at the answer choices can often tell you that you are looking at a problem involving verb forms, word order, parallel structure, misplaced modifiers, or others.

If the answer choices are long or complicated, begin by reading the stem. Don't analyze it word for word, but as you are reading, try to form a picture of the sentence's overall structure. How many clauses will there be in the complete sentence? Does each clause have a complete subject and verb? Is there a connecting word to join clauses? Are any other elements obviously missing?

Then look at the answer choices. If you are not sure of the answer, try to eliminate as many distractors as possible. Distractors in structure are generally incorrect for one of the following reasons:

(I) A necessary word or phrase is missing, so the sentence is still incomplete.

(II) An unnecessary word or phrase is included.

(III) Part of the answer choice is ungrammatical when put into the stem.

Never choose an answer until you have read the sentence completely; sometimes an option seems to fit in the sentence unless you read every word.

After you have eliminated as many answer choices as possible, read the sentence quickly to yourself with the remaining choice or choices in place of the blank. If an answer doesn't sound right, it probably isn't. If you still can't decide, guess and go on. If you have time, come back to these more difficult items later.

Punctuation clues can sometimes help you solve structure problems. For example, if there are a series of items in a sentence separated by commas (A,B and C) you will probably see a problem involving parallel structures.