Written structure notes.

About the written expression:

In this part of the exam, there are twenty-five questions and it is necessary to identify phrases that must
be rewritten to assure that the sentence is written correctly. All the errors will always involve grammar
usage and never a punctuation or spelling error.

Example:

In this case, the wrong phrase or word is “Dramatic”

The word that must be used is “drama”, and the sentence writes as follows:

Music, drama, and art contribute to the culture of any community.

Another example:

In this sentence, the verb “having” is written in the wrong form verb. The sentence must be written as:

Lenses may have either a concave or convex shapes.

What is the best way to answer the written expression items?

 As general recommendations, you should read first the whole sentence in detail and quickly to
find any possible error in the underlined phrases. Do not only read the underlined phrases and
read the whole sentence before answering.
 The easier questions can be answered in only one read, but if you do not find the error in the
phrases take a closer look at them. Pay special attention to articles and prepositions. Normally,
as reading newspapers or articles, people do not look at them in detail since they do not provide
much information, but in the written section of the exam, they can save you a lot of points and
thus a higher score.
 It would be helpful for some test takers to speak laud the whole sentence, nonetheless, you are
not allowed to do that during the exam. Instead, it is worth to train you to read the sentence in
your mind.
 If you cannot identify the error, a good strategy is to make a checklist of the most common
errors that can occur during the written section. For instance: word form, word choice, verb
error, parallelism, pronoun errors, and singular/plural nouns.
For this videos, I will start with the most common errors from the above list, so the first type of question
will involve Word From errors and then go on with the next type of errors according to their frequency.

During the exam, it is not important to know how to correct the error in the underlined phrase but
during this small lectures, it is worth to understand why and the item is incorrect.

Errors with word forms

By far many of the errors in the Written Structure section are derived from errors in the Word
Forms. Most errors of this type involve using one type of speech in place of another. Both the
incorrect form and the correction come from the same root.
The four parts of the speech are nouns, verb, adjectives, and adverbs. The most common
problems are adjectives in place of adverbs, and adverbs in place of adjectives. Nouns in place of
adjectives and adjectives in place of nouns are also a common problem. In some word-form
problems, different forms of the same part of the speech may be involved. For example, a noun
that refers to a person may be used in place of the field. A gerund may also be used in place of an
ordinary noun.
Parts of the speech can often be identified by their suffixes.
Adjective/adverb errors
The most common type of problem involves the used of an adverb in place of an adjective or an
adjective in place of an adverb.
Point to keep in mind:
 Adjectives modify nouns, nouns phrases, and pronouns.
 Adjectives often come before nouns. An important event, a quiet evening, a long letter.
 They often answer the question What kind? Shes is a brilliant doctor.
 Adjectives also follow the verb to be and other linking verbs.
 Adverbs may modify verbs, participles, adjectives, prepositions, adverbs clause markers,
and other adverbs.
 Sometimes adverbs are used at the beginning of sentences, often before a comma. These
adverbs sometimes modify the whole sentence rather than one word in the sentence.
  Most of the adverbs tested in this section are adverbs of manner. The adverbs of manner
ar the ones that end with ly or ally.
 Adverbs of manner answer the question How?
 A few adverbs as few, hard, and high have the same form as adjectives.
 Well is the irregular adverb of adjective good.
 Some adjectives also end with Ly.
Some sample items:
 The Black Hills of South Dakota are covered with densely pine forest.
 The Black Hills of South Dakota are covered with dense pine forest.

Incorrect Forms of Words Connected with Certain Fields.

This error involves a confusion between the names of fields and the name of a person who
practices in that field, or between one of those terms and the adjective that describes the field.
Biology, biologist, biological.

First specializing in industrial photography, Margaret Bourke-White later became a famous news
photographer and editorial.

Corn played an important role in the culture of the cliff-dwelling Indians of the Southwest.

The galaxy Andromeda is the most distant object visible to observers in the Northern
Hemisphere.

Exercise 31.
1. Differ, difference, different, differently.
2. Invent, invention, inventive, inventively.
3. Compete, competition, complete, completely,
4. Fertilize, fertilization, fertile, fertilely