Correcting Parallel Structure Errors - PSAT Writing

The problem with the end of the sentence is that the underlined phrase has an unclear reference. "They could as young" does not have an obvious comparison being made. The answer choice "they could when they were young," is the best improvement on the sentence.

One cannot compare “works” to “painters.” One must compare the works of Degas to those of other painters.

The use of "both...and" in the sentence indicates that the two verb forms are actually contrasted in the sentence and should not be parallel. Therefore, the verb in the underlined portion should indicate either what is taking place now or will take place in the future. "And where it is going," is the correct answer choice.

The pairing of the two phrases indicate that they need to have a parrallel tense for each verb. Only two answer choices, "to play with toys and to run in parks," and "playing with toys, running in parks," are parrallel, and "playing with toys, running in parks," should be separated by a conjunction.

In this question, only the original sentence shows parallelism. Any choice other than "its overall cost" would not exhibit parallel structure with the sentence's other elements.

This sentence requires parallelism across all elements. Only "profoundly green" matches "breathlessly vibrant" and "symmetrical."

Let's take a look at the parts from which this this sentence is composed: we have "No one," a subject, "has ever sailed," a verb, "through the treacherous waters," a prepositional phrase, and then "was able to tell anyone about it afterward," a predicate. This sentence has too many verbs. While there are numerous ways to make this sentence grammatically correct, one way is to make the underlined portion into a subject; that way, the sentence would consist of a subject, followed by a prepositional phrase describing that subject, followed by a predicate. The answer choice "No one who has ever sailed" adds in the subordinate conjunction "who" to make what was a verb ("has ever sailed") into a subordinate clause ("who has ever sailed"), making "No one who has ever sailed through the treacherous waters" one big subject and the sentence grammatically correct. While the other answer choices "No one who will sail" each function as a subject, it introduces the future verb tense that doesn't match the past-tense verb "was able" that appears later in the sentence.

The underlined phrase functions as a comparison in the sentence, between humans and "most animals." Thus, the phrase needs to appropriately compare in the same manner as the other mention of the trait in the sentence. "Than humans" is the correct answer choice. The "did" is an extraneous verb that introduces an error by being in the past tense when the verb that appears prior to it in the sentence, "have," is in the present tense.

The underlined phrase in the sentence, being the second part of a complex sentence, needs to have a parallel structure to the phrase in the first half of the sentence; therefore, "leaving little time to do outdoor chores," is the best choice among the answers.

The three activities in the list all need to have a parallel structure, and be grammatically correct, ruling out the answer choice featuring the construction "to running . . ." The best answer choice, therefore, is "to swim, to hike, and to run on the camp's property."

Paralellism: in a list of two or more items in a sentence, each should be worded in the same manner for consistency. One choice changes "is" to "are," which is incorrect because the subject is the singular "stretching," not the plural "workouts," which is part of a prepositional phrase.

It is not a parallel comparison. The comparison should match, and state that writing something is easier than writing something.

The term, if not more effective, is an interrupter; therefore, the sentence should read correctly if those words are removed.

This sentence contains an error in parallelism. Specifically, it compares "of good luck" to "by skillful play." The prepositions used in these phrases should match because they are being compared—"more a result of X than by Y" doesn't treat format each item in a consistent manner. The only answer choice that fixes this issue is "good luck than of skillful play," making the corrected sentence "The success of the one-handed touchdown catch was more a result of good luck than of skillful play."

The cleanest and most logical coordinator here is “rather than,” and the verb should be in the same grammatical format as the ones before it.

This sentence's error is one of parallel structure. The first two items in its list, "Public education" and "health care," are nouns, but the third item, "the constructing of new roadways," begins with a gerund. All of the items in a list should be formatted in the same way. There are numerous ways in which we could change the sentence so that each of its items take on the same grammatical form, and several answer choices correctly fix this issue; only "Public education, health care, and constructing new roadways are all areas," which changes the gerund "constructing" to a present progressive verb by omitting the definite article "the," does not do this.

All but one of the answer choices that fix the parallel structure of the list introduce new errors. "Public education, health care, and new roadway construction is all areas" incorrectly uses the singular verb "is" to refer to the plural compound subject, so it is incorrect. "All areas are public education, health care, and new roadway construction" convolutes the sentence's word order and makes it confusing by making it seem as if "all areas"—all of the areas in total, not just the ones "that we desperately need to fund"—are the three listed. Only "Public education, health care, and new roadway construction are all areas" fixes the sentence's error without introducing new mistakes, making it the correct answer and the corrected sentence "Public education, health care, and new roadway construction are all areas that we desperately need to fund."

This sentence uses parallel structure, so we need to make sure both of its verbs match in terms of tense and verb form. We cannot change "to play tennis," so we need to make "riding his bicycle" match the tense and verb form of "to play tennis." "To play" is an infinitive, so we need to change "riding" to "to ride," another infinitive, yielding "to ride his bicycle," the correct answer.

The underlined portion of the sentence is incorrect, as any series needs to have a parallel structure, where all elements of the series are written in the same form. "Being harnessed, saddled, and ridden" is the only answer choice that is both correct grammatically and parallel in structure.

All elements in a list should be parallel: they should be of the same structure. Choose the answer that keeps elements parallel: "the recent scandal and the disenfranchisement . . ."