The importance of SAT writing and language is equivalent to the importance of English in countries like the US, UK, Canada or any other English-speaking country, for that matter. The second section of the SAT, the writing and language section is aimed at evaluating your grammar and the effective use of language in general. The tasks you are given here, are based on finding out the errors and correcting them.
To ace SAT writing, you need to have a sound understanding of English grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, and rhetoric. This, however, cannot be achieved overnight but, in fact, with years of hard work and understanding of the language along with all the sections of the SAT.
This guide will help you to understand the SAT writing and language section thoroughly and score high on the test.
SAT Writing and Language Section: An Overview
Let us have a quick look at the SAT writing and language section before proceeding deeply into its discussion.
Parameter |
Detail |
---|---|
Total Number of Questions |
44 |
Duration |
35 minutes |
Question Type |
Multiple choice question |
Two sub-portions |
Expression of Ideas and Standard English Conventions |
Total number of Passages |
4 |
Score Range |
200-800 (Combined with the reading section of SAT) |
Skills Tested in SAT Writing and Language
Language skill is important for admission to US universities. College Board, the conducting body of the SAT, has selected the writing and language section to evaluate students:
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Clarity of argument
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Word choice
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Ability to analyse topics in social studies and sciences
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The Sentence or word structure
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Punctuation
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Word usage
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Style and rhetorical skills
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SAT Writing and Language Section Rules
The SAT writing and language section rules prepare students to face challenges posed by the questions in this section. Reviewing, memorising and applying these rules will go a long way in addressing the section. Here are some top grammar rules that will come to aid in the SAT writing and language section:
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There should be an agreement in the number of subjects and verbs. If the subject is singular, then the verb should be plural and vice versa.
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The collective nouns are treated as singular. When multiple people are referred together they form a singular unit.
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Pronouns must have a clear reference to the person and numbers. The SAT exam often uses sentences where it is confusing to understand to whom the pronoun is referring. Along with that, they also use numbers that do not agree with the pronouns. Students should mindfully attempt these questions.
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Modifiers always appear along with the words they are modifying. The modifier should appear before the word modified.
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Each word should have contextual meaning and students need to decipher them. Often homophones are used to present challenges in front of students. The words given as options for multiple-choice questions often bear similar meanings but are not appropriate in the context.
SAT Writing and Language Format
After the SAT reading section, you would have to attempt the writing and language section of the SAT which is 35 minutes long. It consists of a total of 44 questions that have to be completed without that time.
The section includes four passages followed by 11 multiple-choice questions. The SAT writing questions are often pictographically represented in the form of charts and diagrams. You can expect at least two questions based on pictures. Each of the passages is around 400-450 words, which is less than the reading section.
A range of topics such as science, history, social studies, and humanities are included in the writing and language question paper of the SAT.
- There is one narrative passage that describes the event as a story. This passage can be fiction or non-fiction, a historical event, or maybe a description of events in scientific experiments.
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The other passage can be argumentative. They convince the reader of some idea.
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Some passages consist of pictographic like charts, graphs or infographics to be interpreted with the writing passage.
Broadly, SAT Writing questions fall into two categories:
1. Expression of Ideas -The questions check the expression of ideas and include the following types of questions:
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Development Questions - These questions focus on the main ideas and supporting logic.
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Organisation Questions -They focus on logical sequence and placement of ideas.
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Effective Language Use Questions - Here the style and tone of the sentences and the flow of it are considered.
2. Recognition and Error Correction of Sentence Structure, Usage, Vocabulary, and Grammar -In this question type, errors such as run-on types of sentences or incomplete sentences and incorrect usage of grammar and punctuation are noted.
Question Type |
Duration |
---|---|
Multiple-choice questions |
25 minutes + 10 minutes |
The writing section of the SAT consists of at least 24 questions and the remaining 20 questions are based on grammar usage. The breakdown is more or less evenly divided between the two sections.
Topics Covered in SAT Writing and Language Section
If the SAT appears as a vast unknown to you then you need not worry. Here, are a few recurrent topics that come up every year, and practising them thoroughly will help you in your examination.
SAT Writing and Language Section Syllabus | |
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Punctuation | Parallelism |
Subject-verb agreement | Modifiers |
Verbs | Tenses |
Pronouns | Expression of Ideas |
SAT Writing and Language Section Sample and Practice
It is extremely crucial to practice SAT writing and language samples and practice papers before attempting the real test. As the SAT writing and language focuses on reading comprehension and finding and correcting errors, students need to practice diverse questions. Here are the benefits of practising SAT writing and language section:
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Students will learn to identify errors in subject-verb agreements, pronouns and other types of sentences.
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They can easily find out mistakes and correct phrases, clauses and sentence errors.
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They can learn to spot punctuation errors.
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Test takers gain knowledge on how to improve their sentences.
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The writing style will improve immensely as students will keep practising the SAT writing and language sample papers.
How Can You Score High inSAT Writing and Language Section?
The strategy for SAT writing and language section is a critical one as you cannot just mug up all the rules and usages overnight. It requires you to practice a lot and work out hard throughout your preparation phase. Here are the SAT writing and language tips.
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Study the basics well. Have a good understanding of punctuation, subject-verb agreement, idioms, homophone usage, pronouns, verbs, modifiers, run-on sentences, comparison, description, and parallel constructions. Some of these you have been doing forever while some you might need to learn and relearn to score better on the SAT.
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Studying the rules alone will not help. You will have to remember and practice them well on practice papers. Solving worksheets and SAT practice papers will help you understand your progress as well as work on your weaknesses.SAT writing and language practice are very important.
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Improve your writing strategies. The writing section checks your reading as well as your writing skills. You have to work on a few aspects of writing such as tone, cohesion, congruence, support, formality, and purpose. Read a vast variety of books and articles to understand the aforementioned ideas to write better.
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You will have to dedicate your time, energy, and commitment to the preparation for the SAT. You will have to practice well throughout the week to get that perfect writing style that will smoothen your road to college admission in the USA.
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You will have to be a judge of your errors and correct them yourself to have a better idea of where you stand when it comes to your knowledge of English.
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One of the common mistakes which students make is to misread a question. So it's your first task to set up and increase your concentration level.
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Polish your skills of eliminating the options. Sometimes it is how you can arrive at the correct answer. In case of error questions, you can eliminate the correct answers to reach the wrong one.
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Remember that there can be questions where the correct option is No error. So, don't shy away from choosing it if your mind signals you to do so.
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As the time allocated to each SAT writing question is relatively less, you would not have enough time to think while attempting them. The best way here is to mark the right answer whilst reading the question.
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