SAT Essay Help: Accidental Shifts

Verb Tenses

Verb tenses must be consistent within each sentence and paragraph. Because they represent time (past, present, and future), shifting them can cause confusion.

If you make a mistake, your grade went down.

If you make a mistake refers to something that may happen in the future. But grade went down is in the past tense. We don't know if the speaker is referring to something that already happened or something that may happen. The key to avoiding verb tense shifts is to be aware of the tense you're writing in and use it consistently.

Instead of: I had never been to London, but I will feel right at home there.

Write: I had never been to London, but I felt right at home there.

Instead of: Last year, the governor said he is campaigning for our candidate.

Write: Last year, the governor said he would campaign for our candidate, or Last year, the governor said he was campaigning for our candidate.

Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of nouns and may be masculine or feminine, singular or plural. Shifting pronoun types within a sentence is another way to confuse your reader.

If they want to succeed, one should study diligently for tests.

The pronoun they is plural, but one is singular. The reader has to guess: Is the author speaking about a group or an individual? Correcting shifts in pronouns means being aware of whether the subject you're replacing is singular or plural, masculine or feminine. The pronoun one is often at the root of the problem. It's often easiest to keep pronouns from shifting by replacing one or more of them with more specific words. Here are a couple of examples:

Instead of: If one is careful, they can avoid additional cable television fees.

Write: If cable television subscribers are careful, they can avoid additional fees.

Instead of: We asked about interest rates for our mortgage and found out you could lock in at any time.

Write: We asked about interest rates for our mortgage, and found out we could lock in at any time.

Active or Passive Voice

The third type of shift occurs when moving incorrectly from the active to the passive voice, or vice versa. In the active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action; in the passive voice, the subject receives the action. Keep in mind that in most situations, the active voice is preferred. To correct the shift, change the passive part of the sentence to match the active one. In the following example, the first part of the sentence is written in the active voice; the subject (Lea) performs the action (bought). However, in the second part, the subject (it, or the sushi) receives the action (was eaten):

Lea bought the sushi, and it was eaten by her children.

To continue the active voice, the sentence should be corrected to read:

Lea bought the sushi, and her children ate it.