“The SAT is a scam. It has been around for 50 years. It has never measured anything. And it continues to measure nothing. And the whole game is that everybody who does well on it, is so delighted by their good fortune that they don't want to attack it. And they are the people in charge. Because of course, the way you get to be in charge is by having high test scores. So it's this terrific kind of rolling scam that every so often, somebody sort of looks and says--well, you know, does it measure intelligence? No. Does it predict college grades? No. Does it tell you how much you learned in high school? No. Does it predict life happiness or life success in any measure? No. It's measuring nothing.”
—John Katzman, founder of The Princeton Review
Yo, Grammar: What's up with comma splices?
You’re right: You should definitely look out for comma splices on the SAT.
A comma splice is a grammar error that is created by joining two independent clauses (complete sentences) with a comma.
Since we have two complete sentences, we would form a comma splice if we combined them by using just a comma:
We see comma splices everywhere, and it’s unfortunate that people don’t know how to correct them.
Here is an easy way to correct a comma splice:
Here are some other ways to fix comma splices:
- Use the appropriate coordinating conjunction (aka “FANBOYS”) that fix comma splices.
- As we did above, use a semicolon.
- End the first sentence with a period, and begin the next sentence by capitalizing the first word.
- Read PWN the SAT’s excellent post on run-on sentences and fragments (and follow his instructions).
Good luck on the SAT!
“The SAT is a scam. It has been around for 50 years. It has never measured anything. And it continues to measure nothing. And the whole game is that everybody who does well on it, is so delighted by their good fortune that they don’t want to attack it. And they are the people in charge. Because of course, the way you get to be in charge is by having high test scores. So it’s this terrific kind of rolling scam that every so often, somebody sort of looks and says—well, you know, does it measure intelligence? No. Does it predict college grades? No. Does it tell you how much you learned in high school? No. Does it predict life happiness or life success in any measure? No. It’s measuring nothing.”
—John Katzman, founder of The Princeton Review
Yo, Grammar: What's up with "a" and "an" when it comes to acronyms?
Whether you use “a” or “an” before an acronym or an initialism depends entirely on how the word is pronounced.
Here are some more examples:
- a laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) gun
- an FBI |ehf-bee-eye| agent
- a CIA |see-eye-ay| operative
- a ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) code
- a BFF |bee-ehf-ehf|
