Standard English Conventions
Just because the test uses a phrase, doesn't mean it has an official meaning.
A Standard English Convention sounds like the worst “Con” anyone could go to. Instead of celebrating comics, games, anime, fantasy, or other creative outlet, you’d have people dressing up as grammar rules. And no one could have fun with any costumes, because everyone has to follow the narrow rules of the Convention. Thankfully, no such convention exists.
Unfortunately, Standard English Conventions are something anyone taking the SAT needs to worry about. If you take an official or practice PSAT or SAT, whoever you are and wherever you live and whenever you take it, you’ll see a question about “the Conventions of Standard English.” In fact, you will see this exact question 8 to 10 times: “Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?”
Now imagine if you glazed over that question on reading it there what will happen when you read it for the 7th or 8th time on test day. Especially because it will always come after an annoying little three sentence passage with a blank in it. Imagine something like this:
Making reservations has become a necessity for many popular restaurants. Online booking systems mean that anyone can make a reservation at any time. This crunch has made the role of a host change. Quite often, the majority of a night’s work for someone working at the host stand is telling walk-up patrons that __________ a surprisingly long wait.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. they will having
B. they will have
C. they will had
D. they will have had
A quick explanation: The only piece changing between each answer choice is the verb form of “have” in the phrase. Focus on that change. Since the host is telling patrons what will happen in the near future, it should be a simple future tense verb form. The only one with the correct tense is “B. they will have.”
If you got lost somewhere in the previous paragraph around “verb form” or “future tense,” then you should know that you don’t need to articulate WHY an answer choice is correct on the SAT. You can, in fact, often find which one “sounds right.” “They will having” and “they will had” are constructions no one uses in regular spoken English. “They will have had” conflicts with the verb form “telling.” This won’t always work, because the test is built on tricking students. Yet when the SAT asks about “conventions of Standard English,” it can’t do too much to stray from what sounds right.
That is because “conventions of Standard English” are a highly debated thing. Can you split an infinitive? Should you end a sentence with a preposition? Does the possessive form need an extra “s” to provide clarity? I would say yes to all of these, but you have likely heard the opposite and each one is debated in certain specific circles. These are also grammar issues that won’t be on the SAT because they are debated.
The reason such things can be debated, apart from the sheer fun of it, is that there are no official “conventions of Standard English.” No governing body determines what is the undisputed correct grammar for the English language. French does have this kind of governing body, the Academie Francaise. English has always been a series of arguments about proper usage between publishers of dictionaries, academic grammarians, and professional editors.
That means that when you need to assess the “conventions of Standard English” on the SAT, you don’t need to worry about the official grammatical distinctions. Largely, you are focused on finding what makes a sentence clearest and easiest to understand. Simplifying any question will help you on a standardized test. When the test asks you about “conventions of Standard English,” always remember that there is no such thing as an official Standard English Convention.