GMAT Sentence Correction Tips

I wanted to share my "Road to GMAT" experiences now that I have completed experiencing it. Also I would like to share my notes and knowledge. In this article I am providing a kind of cheat sheet for cracking GMAT sentence correction questions. I was able to solve all most all questions following these rules. All these rules can be found in many places and I must admit that I have gleaned them from various places and created a cheat sheet for myself. So I don't consider all of this to be my work but may be a portion of it is mine. But I hope this article would help all the GMAT test takers. Good Luck to you all.

 Rules about Verbs:

• A verb must agree with its subject in number
• when checking agreement, ignore any words or phrases that separate a verb from its subject
• Collective nouns are usually singular 
• The number is singular; a number is plural
• Pronouns ending in -one,-body,and -thing are singular
• The SANAM pronouns- some, any, none, all, and most - may be either singular or plural. This is decided by looking at the object.
• Verb tenses must reflect the sequence of events accurately
• Always use the past participle form of a verb with the helping verb to have
• Use the correct past tense and past participle forms of irregular verbs.

Rules about Modifying Phrases:

• A modifying phrase must modify a word or phrase appearing in the sentence
• A modifying phrase must be next to what it modifies.

Rules about Grammatical and Logical Consistency

• Items in a list must be grammatically parallel.
• Two things being compared must be grammatically parallel.
• Two things being compared must be logically similar.
• A subject and its complement must be logically consistent.
• Use adjectives to modify nouns or pronouns; use adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.
• use a comparative adjective or adverb to compare two things; use a superlative for three or more.
• Distinguish among the adjective good, the adverb well, and the adjective well.

Rules about Pronouns:

• A pronoun must have a clear and logical antecedent. 
• The antecedent of a pronoun must be a noun. (Or another pronoun)
• A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number.
• Use second and third person pronouns consistently.

Rules about connecting clauses:

• Choose the logical conjunction.
• Use a semicolon to connect two independent clauses.
• Avoid run-on sentences.
• Avoid sentence fragments.

Rules about verbosity:

• Avoid needless repetition.
• Eliminate the words when this can be done without sacrificing grace, clarity, or meaning.
• Avoid needless use of the passive construction.
• When idiomatic paired phrases are used, always complete the idiom.
• Distinguish gerunds from infinitives.
• Distinguish likely from liable.
• Distinguish like from as.
• Distinguish countable quantities from quantities that cannot be counted.
• Use the idiomatic preposition.

Rules for other sources:

• To join two independent clauses, use a comma followed by a conjunction, a semicolon alone, or a semicolon followed by a sentence modifier. 
• Use commas to enclose nonrestrictive clauses or phrases, which are not essential to the sentece's meaning.
• Do not use commas to bracket phrases that are essential to a sentece's meaning. 
• When beginning a sentence with an introductory phrase or an introductory (dependent) clause, include a comma.
• To indicate possession, end a singular noun with an apostrophe followed by an "s". Otherwise, the noun's form seems plural.
• Use proper punctuation to integrate a quotation into a sentence. If the introductory material is an independent clause, add the quotation after a colon. If the introductory material ends in "thinks," "saying," or some other verb indicating expression, use a comma.

In short:

 The below should be your thought process while solving a sentence correction problem:

• Find the verb, then its subject. Check subject-verb agreement, correct tense and proper verb information.
• Examine all pronouns. Make sure each has a clear antecedent with which it agrees in person and number.
• Look for wobbling fo the sentence structure. Make sure modifiers are attached to what they modify, parallel ideas are grammatically parallel, and comparisons are clear and logical.
• Listen for awkwardness, verbosity, and incorrect use of idioms.

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