A Common Error Found On The SAT Writing Section

The sentence correction portion of the SAT deals predominantly with common grammatical errors such as subject-verb agreement, gerunds, and incorrectly located phrases. One of the most difficult errors this section tests for is that of a mismatched comparative.
What is a Comparative Statement?
A comparative statement is one that compares one or more people, places, or things to another. Following are examples of comparative statements used correctly in sentences:
Maria's dogs are as well-behaved as John's dogs.
Maria's dogs are as well behaved as those of John.
The national deficit of the United States is three times greater than the national deficits of other countries.
The national deficit of the United States is three times greater than that of other countries.
Students in America score as highly on Mathematics exams as do students in Japan.
Students in America score as highly on Mathematics exams as do those in Japan.
Each of the sentences above is correct in terms of its use of the comparative; in the first sentence of each example, an object is directly compared to another, and in the second, the second object is replaced with a demonstrative pronoun (those of, that of)
What Does the SAT Test For?
In terms of comparative statements, the SAT tests for student understanding that a sentence in which one thing is compared to another has to have both items being compared accounted for, either fully or in the form of a demonstrative pronoun replacing the second item. On problems testing for student understanding of comparative structures, the SAT problem usually leaves out the second object in the comparative.
Examples of SAT Questions
Here are some examples of how comparative structure questions appear in the writing section:
The national deficit of the United States is three times higher than other countries.
Here, this sentence, which is written correctly in the examples above, is missing the second comparative. Instead of comparing the national deficit of the United States to the national deficits of other countries, this sentence compares the United States national deficit (a thing) to the actual, geographical countries, themselves. This is a mismatched comparative structure.
The dogs being shown at Westminster this year are better than last year.
Here, again, the actual comparison is missing. The dogs being shown at Westminster are the first object being compared, but there is nothing to compare them to. Written correctly, the sentence would read:
The dogs being shown at Westminster this year are better than those that were shown last year.
Or,
The dogs being shown at Westminster this year are better than the dogs that were shown last year.
Now, the dogs from this year are being compared to the dogs from last year, and the comparative is correctly set up.
How to Spot a Mismatched Comparative Structure
Once comparative structures are understood, they are easy to spot. Look for comparison terms such as better than, worse than, greater than, less than, fewer than, and more than. If one of these terms is present in the sentence, find the first thing being compared, which will always be placed before the comparative term. Then, look after the term for either the same object, or a demonstrative pronoun replacing it. If neither is present, the sentence is incorrect because of the mismatched comparative. Here's an example, step-by-step, of how to check for this:
Sentence: Funding for the arts in America is less than other countries.
Step one: Is there a comparative term? Yes, less than.
Step two: What is being compared? Funding for the arts (in America).
Step three: check for funding for the arts in the second half of the comparison; is it there? No.
The statement is incorrectly written as a comparative. It should read: Funding for the Arts in America is less than funding for the arts in other countries, or, Funding for the arts in America is less than that in other countries.

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