Being is BAD!

No heroic adventure of epic proportions is complete without a bad guy. An ugly, terrible, maniacal villain. In the quest for standardized testing achievement, “being” is that bad guy.

“Being” is the villain because he looks like a good guy. He is going to sound like he fits ever-so-nicely into a sentence, but this is a trap! “Being” is almost always used incorrectly on both the SAT and the ACT. In the “Fix the Sentence” portion of the SAT and ACT NEVER pick an answer choice that contains the word “being.” And, in the “Find the Error” section of the SAT you need to pick “being” as the error.

Why is this villain so bad, you ask? Well, I hate to say it, but the beauty of the ACT and SAT is you technically do not need to know the “why” – just stay away from this very bad word! However, I will tell you in case you need to impress someone with your grammar prowess. “Being” often indicates passive voice, and the SAT and ACT want, for the most part, an active voice. Passive voice occurs when the subject is not doing the action whereas in active voice the subject is doing the action.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

Blog Categories