Writing and Language Pointers for the New SAT (2016)
(Information in this post was excerpted and adapted from Kaplan's New SAT study guide. Kaplan has a variety of excellent books to prepare you for the SAT.)
The following tips will help you do well on the Writing and Language section of the SAT.
- The SAT Writing and Language section contains one or more passages and/or questions that include infographics. Each infographic will convey or expand on information from the passage.
- This section of the exam has 1-2 argumentative texts, 1-2 informative/explanatory texts, and 1 nonfiction narrative text.
- Development Questions: These questions evaluate your ability to develop ideas—clarity of a passage's argument, information, and ideas to determine whether a revision is necessary. You also should possess the skill of evaluating claims or points and identifying elements of a passage that are not relevant.
- Effective Language Use Questions: These questions test your ability to improve the exactness or content appropriateness of word choice or eliminate wordiness and redundancy. You should be able to improve consistency in style and tone, as well as to evaluate the use of sentence structure to accomplish the purpose of a passage.
- Sentence Structure: These questions expect you to recognize and correct grammatically incomplete or substandard sentences. You also need to recognize and correct inappropriate grammatical shifts in the construction of verb and pronoun phrases.
- Conventions of Usage: These questions test your ability to recognize and correct errors in pronoun clarity, grammatical agreement, and logical comparison. You should be able to distinguish among commonly confused possessive determiners (my, your, his, her, its, our), contractions, and adverbs. Know how to recognize and fix incorrectly constructed idioms and frequently misused words.
- Conventions of Punctuation: These questions test your ability to recognize and correct inappropriate uses of punctuation within and at the end of sentences. You should be able to identify and correct inappropriate uses of possessive nouns. Know how to recognize and omit unnecessary punctuation.
Which types of questions, if answered correctly, will garner the most points?
In Order of Most Points to Least Points:
- Effective Language Use and Conventions of Usage and Conventions of Usage
- Development and Sentence Structure
- Conventions of Punctuation
- Shifts in Construction
Development
- Always read the entire passage. Decide on the main idea. In doing so, you more easily answer main idea questions.
- Don't be fooled by answer choices that are true but do not directly support the main idea of a passage.
- Eliminate answers that fail to directly support a cited sentence.
- Be careful of answer choices that relate to an underlined text without showing clearly how the underlined portion supports the preceding sentence (this applies to questions when you are asked to add text).
- When asked about the central idea of the essay, avoid answers that draw on similar ideas but combine those ideas in a way that distorts the overall meaning of the essay.
- When deciding on the best topic sentence (first sentence) for a paragraph, read the paragraph through and decide which answer choice best represents all ideas presented in the paragraph.
- To find the central idea of a paragraph, identify important details and then summarize them in a sentence or two. Then look for the answer choice that is closest to your summary.
Effective Language Use
- Watch out for answer choices that distort the tone/mood of a passage. Such an answer choice should be avoided. (A close reader always considers the tone of a passage.)
- Look for context clues (words) that contribute to tone.
- Avoid choices that are redundant and imprecise (not specific enough). Correct answers will use the clearest, most concise terminology to communicate ideas.
- Plug in the answer choices and select the one that reflects a meaning that is specific and relevant to the sentence you are examining.
- A correct answer will not only flow but will also reflect the purpose and meaning of a paragraph or, if added to a group of words, the larger sentence.
- Choose the most precise/specific answer. For main idea questions, your answer choice may be more general.
- Remember that the best answer choice is the most concise and effective way of stating the information while ensuring that the information is complete.
- When asked to supply or replace a word, check each answer choice to see how it fits. Make sure the word relates to the context of the sentence.
Sentence Formation
- If a sentence sounds clunky and awkward, look for the answer choice that is most clear and easy to understand.
- Words or phrases in a series should have parallel construction. Google parallel construction to find good examples.
- Be careful of answers that sound correct when they stand alone but do not conform to the structure of the sentence as a whole.
- In a list, all things should be presented with the same grammatical structure.
- When asked which detail would best support ideas presented in a section of the essay, consider how the sentence choice relates to the one before and after it. Does your answer choice offer strong support of connecting ideas?
- Remember that a modifier/descriptor should be next to the noun it is modifying and sometimes set off by punctuation, such as a comma.
- When dealing with a run-on sentence, identify the point in the run-on where it appears two sentences have been mistakenly fused together.
- Eliminate answer choices that are not complete sentences or do not maintain the correct verb tense.
- When a dependent clause precedes an independent clause, it should be set off with a comma.
- Eliminate any answer choices that use transition words inappropriately.
Shifts in Construction
- Always examine verb tense in sentences. Make sure tenses are consistent.
Usage
- Pronouns should not be ambiguous. You should be able to find a noun in to which the pronoun refers.
- Eliminate answers that confuse usage of commas and semicolons. Google "when to uses commas" and "when to use semicolons."
- Pronouns must match their antecedents in number (singular or plural).
- Remember that the possessive form must agree with its antecedent.
Punctuation
- When however is used as a transition word, a comma must follow it.
- Decide whether a clause is independent or dependent to decide between using a comma or a semicolon.
- Actively listen in your head as you read a sentence. This technique often helps you get a good sense of whether or not a comma is needed.
Organization
- The first sentence of a paragraph should function well as a transition between ideas in the previous and current paragraph.
Quantitative
- Oftentimes, the graphic will reveal the correct answer. Examine a graphic carefully.
Kaplan publishes excellent guides to prepare for the SAT.
