Reading and Writing Study Guide for the SAT Exam

Writing: Effective Presentation

The SAT exam’s Reading and Writing section also includes questions to evaluate all aspects of your ability to use language for clear communication in written form. You will read passages that contain common errors that writers make. It will be your job to identify the best solution for the writing problem or, sometimes, to decide that there is no error at all. (“No Error” will always be an answer option.) Here are some things to keep in mind as you prepare for this section of the test.

Writing Effectiveness

Some of the writing questions will be based on the effectiveness of the writer’s expression of ideas. You will be tested on your ability to read, comprehend, and analyze a passage, taking particular notice of how the writer developed and organized the passage, as well as his or her use of language. Basically, idea expression relates to the writer’s purpose, and the test questions will require you to make the purpose clearer, sharper, and more logical. You may have to edit a passage to ensure it has effective language use in the following areas.

Word Choice

Writers can effectively use language by picking the best word choices, making their points concise, and following the same style throughout the piece. Precision is the ability to choose the best word possible within a sentence. Most words have many synonyms and it is a common mistake to think that any synonym will be correct. You, as the editor, should be able to use the context of a sentence to choose the best word choice possible to replace one that may not belong. Remember that some words have certain connotations, which can make them a poor choice in a sentence.

Concision

Concision is all about “cutting to the chase.” Strong writing skills include the ability to be direct without losing vital information. If writers can communicate their point in five words instead of ten, then they should do it. You may be asked to revise sentences to eliminate redundancy or unnecessary details.

Style and Tone

Style and tone show how the writer feels about his or her work and influence how a reader should interpret a passage. Style and tone choices should remain consistent for the entire passage, and you may be asked to edit words that conflict with these choices. For example, if a passage has been quite formal overall, you would want to eliminate informal words like ain’t.

Author’s Goals

Writers write with a purpose, or goal, in mind. While an author’s goals may vary, the structure and diction they use help them achieve their purpose. In effective writing, the author will stick to the main idea and provide relevant details or evidence to support that main idea. Organizing the text in a logical way and using appropriate vocabulary and tone help deliver the purpose more successfully to the audience.

Flow

When considering the “flow” of a text, you are assessing how easy it is to read and understand. A text that flows well will lead the reader from the beginning to the middle to the end easily. A text that does not flow well may frustrate the reader by requiring them to reread passages, stop and look up unfamiliar vocabulary that is not defined by context clues, or make it difficult to understand the connections between ideas in the text. As the editor, you may need to move part of a passage around, add information, or delete unnecessary text to enhance the flow.

Syntax

Syntax is a literary device that deals with forming sentences correctly to communicate an idea. Well-formed sentences are extremely important in formal writing and can greatly affect the overall tone of a passage. As the editor, you might need to combine or separate sentences in order to improve their flow, or syntax.

Organization

A writer must use organization to make his or her passage logical, cohesive, and effective. When analyzing and editing the organization of a passage, pay close attention to the following elements:

The sequence of a passage is the order in which ideas and topics are presented. The sequence should always be logical, and you may be asked to reorder sentences within a paragraph in order to improve the sequence. A sentence that seems random or irrelevant is most likely out of logical sequence.

Passages with logical sequence should have strong introductions, conclusions, and transitions. When you act as the “editor” of a passage during the test, you may need to revise these elements to make the sequence of the passage stronger. Introductions should introduce the main idea and draw the reader in, while conclusions should quickly summarize and close the topic without repeating everything all over again.

Development

Development is how the writer makes his or her purpose clear throughout a passage. Improving the development of a passage includes revising and updating the content to make the writer’s purpose more clear. The act of development will include the following and you may be required to add, revise, or leave these elements unchanged:

Proposition deals with the important “proposing” elements within a passage, such as thesis statements, topic sentences, and claims made by the writer. All of these elements add up to create the main idea within a passage. The main idea needs to be strikingly clear and can be drawn from the previously mentioned statements and sentences.

Support includes the material used to support or bolster the writer’s ideas and claims. Support can mean examples, data graphs, quotes, and more. Within a passage, there must be strong support for any point and you may be required to revise a passage so that claims are better supported.

A passage or paragraph has focus when all the material and support are relevant to the author’s purpose. A passage loses focus when unnecessary or irrelevant sentences are included. You may be asked, for example, if a portion of a paragraph should be kept or deleted. Remember to only keep material that keeps the writer’s purpose focused.

Quantitative information includes graphic data, such as tables, graphs, and charts, that adds more detailed support to claims within the passage. Not every passage will include a graph but expect to see at least one on your test. You must understand how to read and interpret the quantitative information because you may be asked to change elements in a passage to better reflect the data.

Transition Words and Phrases

Transitions are a great way to lead the reader to each new point and signal what kind of information they are about to receive. For example, the transitional phrase “for example” makes it quite obvious what is coming next, and the transitional words first, second, and finally give the information chronological order.

Writing: Standard English

Also included in the writing questions are inquiries concerning the use of the conventions of standard English. Conventions of English are the broad, predetermined guidelines that have been established for writing and communicating. Following these conventions ensures that readers will clearly understand the message the writer is trying to convey, while failure to follow these conventions will often leave readers distracted or confused. On the SAT, you must act as the editor when reading the four passages. When proofreading for convention errors, pay close attention to structure, usage, and punctuation.

Sentence Structure

When editing errors in sentence structure, you will spend most of your time looking for the following types of mistakes.

Proper Formation of Sentences

This can include the correction of sentence fragments (incomplete sentences, unless a fragment is intentional in order to achieve some rhetorical effect), ensuring proper combination of sentences and words (be sure to review subordinating and coordinating conjunctions and their uses), making sure all sentences are parallel (when clauses are grammatically equal a writer has achieved parallelism), and the correct placement of modifiers (be wary of dangling or misplaced modifiers).

Shifts in Sentences

Watch out for sentences that incorrectly shift tenses, which would require you to edit the verb into the correct form. For example, you may have to change a verb from present continuous (studying) to past tense (studied) in order to follow the pattern already established in the sentence. Incorrect shifts can also occur with pronouns and numbers, such as a writer changing from first-person to third-person in the same passage.

Word Usage

Usage, as you can probably assume, refers to how the writer uses parts of English. Be prepared to analyze and edit the following usage conventions.

Pronoun Usage

Writers use pronouns to re-label nouns they have already introduced. Examples of pronouns are he, she, it, me, whom, us, mine, etc. Be sure to review the complete list of pronouns. Clarity of pronouns is essential for writers because lack of clarity causes confusion for the reader, and the point of the writing will be lost. One common error in clarity includes which noun is being referenced. For example:

Susan asked Sharon to help plan the reunion. However, she didn’t show up to the meeting.

In this sentence, who is she?

Point of View (POV)

The point of view must remain consistent within a sentence. Look at this example:

Eric gave his employees the company memo. But you forgot to give a memo to Sandra.

There was a change from third person POV, he, to second person POV, you.

Change in Quantity or Number

Be careful to reflect the subject of the sentence when choosing a pronoun. Here’s one example:

The box of printer paper reams was finally delivered. The typists already used them.

The pronoun them should be it, since the noun being referred to is the box.

Possessives

These tell us when something is owned. Possessive pronouns can be identified because they replace the noun, whereas possessive determiners are used in conjunction with the noun. For example:

The black Samsung is her phone.

Her is a possessive determiner because it is used with the noun phone. It is determining who owns the phone.

The black Samsung is hers.

Hers is a possessive pronoun because it completely replaces the noun phone while identifying who owns the phone.

Be sure to review the different types of possessives and make sure not to confuse possessives with contractions (its versus it’s, your versus you’re, etc.).

Agreement

A quick Google search will reward you with complete lists of agreement errors and ways to fix them, but common places to find agreement errors are between the subject and the verb and between the pronoun and the noun it is replacing (called an antecedent). Here are some examples:

The bag of apples are in the kitchen.

This is incorrect because the singular subject bag requires a singular verb is, rather than are.

Sarah bought a carton of eggs so she could use them in the bake-off.

This is incorrect because the singular subject carton requires a singular pronoun it, rather than them.

Frequently Confused Words

Even the best writers can sometimes use the wrong word in a sentence, but this leads to confusion and frustration for the reader. As the editor, you must be wary of frequently confused words in order to properly correct them. Words like affect and effect, or awhile and a while cannot be used interchangeably, no matter how similar they sound. Be sure to review commonly confused words to ensure you know the proper meanings. Here is one easy-to-use list of them.

Logical Comparisons

Writers often make comparisons to strengthen or clarify a point. However, it is very important that the items being compared are alike, creating logical comparisons. When proofreading, watch for the signal word than, which often means a comparison is being made: “greater than,” “longer than,” “better than,” etc. Check out these examples of common comparison errors:

The beaches in Thailand are prettier than Florida. (INCORRECT)

The beaches in Thailand are prettier than the beaches in Florida. (CORRECT)

Because beaches and Florida are not like terms, it is illogical to compare them. Beaches must be compared to beaches.

Sarah’s term paper is longer than Billy. (INCORRECT)

Sarah’s term paper is longer than Billy’s term paper. (CORRECT)

Sarah’s term paper is longer than Billy’s. (CORRECT)

A term paper cannot be longer than a human, so it must be clear that Sarah’s paper is being compared to Billy’s paper, not Billy himself.

The quarterback of the college football team, Dan Jobson, is faster than any player on the team. (INCORRECT)

The quarterback of the college football team, Dan Jobson, is faster than any other player on the team. (CORRECT)

Always remember to use the words other or else when comparing someone to members of the same group. In the example above, the first sentence doesn’t use other, which means the sentence is comparing Dan to all players, including himself, since he is a part of the football team. Using other specifies that Dan is being compared to his teammates. See the next similar example that uses the word else.

The math teacher at Washington Academy is stricter than anyone on the faculty.

This is incorrect because the math teacher is a member of the faculty.

The math teacher at Washington Academy is stricter than anyone else on the faculty.

This is correct because of the word else.

Punctuation

Punctuation signals the beginning and end of sentences, displays sentence breaks, and makes writing easy to understand. Make sure you are familiar with the following punctuation conventions.

End-of-Sentence Punctuation

Punctuation must be used at the end of a sentence for the sentence to feel complete. The context of the sentence should determine the type of punctuation needed to correctly end the sentence. You should be very familiar with the three options for end-of-sentence punctuation and their appropriate use: periods (.), exclamation points (!), and question marks (?).

Within-Sentence Punctuation

The use of these can be trickier than end-of-sentence marks as they include a wider variety and multiple uses. These marks include commas (,), dashes (—), colons (:), semicolons (;), quotation marks (“), and parentheses [( )]. Each of these has its own rules to follow. Here are some guidelines for common within-sentence punctuation marks to ensure you can correct any errors.

• A comma (,) is used for multiple purposes. Commas indicate a short pause and can be used to separate items in a list. They are also used to connect independent clauses when using a coordinating conjunction and to set apart introductory phrases and nonrestrictive clauses. They’re used to introduce and move out of direct quotations, between city and state names, in dates, and in numbers over 999 (such as 1,489).

We ordered two appetizers, three main courses, and four desserts.

Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the library?

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky.

As Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

The baby bird fell out of its nest, so we called the bird rescue to come save it.

While there are numerous uses for commas, it is important to understand when not to use them. A comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses by itself, should not be used between the subject and verb of a sentence, and should not be used when a subject has two verbs.

• Use a dash (—) to indicate a pause or to separate clauses. They can be used in place of commas, parentheses, and colons. Dashes tend to show emphasis and should be used sparingly.

She succinctly outlined her plan—tax cuts, clean energy, and support for new businesses.

When the couch was finally delivered—eight months after it was ordered—it was too big for the room.

The kids in class voted unanimously—pizza party for perfect attendance.

• A colon (:) can be used to introduce a list, for emphasis, or between independent clauses when the second explains or is related to the first.

To earn his certification, Mark had to take five courses: advanced open-water diving, wreck diving, cave diving, underwater navigation, and CPR.

The jury returned with a verdict in just two hours: not guilty.

Courtney attended culinary school for three years: she specialized in pastry.

Colons are also used in time, in correspondence, and to indicate ratio.

We’re meeting for dinner at 6:00.

Attention: Shipping Department

When making hummingbird food, use a 1:4 ratio of sugar to water.

• A semicolon (;) can be used in several ways. It is considered stronger than a comma, but not as strong as a period. Semicolons can be used to combine independent clauses without needing a coordinating conjunction, before conjunctive adverbs, and in lists that include commas to avoid confusion.

The driver was going too fast and not paying attention; he ran the red light.

Tara asked for sweetened iced tea; however, she was served unsweetened iced tea.

The baseball team traveled to San Jose, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Provo, Utah; and Scottsdale, Arizona during spring training.

• A **hyphen (-) is used to combine words to form compound terms or to indicate date sequences. A hyphen replaces the word “to” or “through.” It should not be confused with a dash, which is longer and serves different purposes.

Jimmy Carter served as president from 1977-1981.

The store is open Tuesday-Saturday from 9-3.

Check-in is at 11:00.

There were twenty-six flights canceled.

• Quotation marks (”) are often associated with dialogue or conversations between characters. This is because quotation marks indicate that the words contained within come from a source other than the author. However, in nonfiction texts, quotation marks can also be used to quote source material or to identify translated language, nicknames, or scare quotes, which emphasize that the quoted word or phrase is acting as euphemistic or indirect language.

According to the most recent study, “‘Lighthouse’ parents offer children guidance without stifling their growth or autonomy and may produce more independent children than ‘helicopter’ parents.” (Note the quotation marks within the quotation marks in this sentence to identify the terms “lighthouse” and “helicopter” within the quotation).

We said adios, “goodbye,” to our abuela as she headed back to Argentina after a month-long visit.

Michael “Air” Jordan played in the NBA for 15 seasons.

My brother was considered a “wild child” growing up, but today he runs a successful multinational company.

Remember that punctuation in and around quotation marks comes with its own set of rules. Commas and periods generally go inside the quotation marks, even if they’re not part of the original quotation. Other marks, unless they are part of the quoted material, go outside the quotation marks. Introducing quoted material generally requires a comma or colon to come before, though no punctuation is needed if there is no introductory lead-in.

Heraclitus famously noted, “One cannot step twice in the same river.”

Have you heard the saying, “The price of greatness is responsibility”?

• Parentheses [( )] are used in pairs to allow writers to add extra information to a sentence. They behave similarly to commas, to separate ideas in a sentence. However, the information added in parentheses must be non-essential to the sentence’s meaning; if the sentence doesn’t make sense without what’s in the parentheses, the parentheses must be deleted, and the content included directly in the sentence, surrounded by commas. Parenthetical additions may be a single word, several words, a phrase, or even complete sentences. Here are some examples of parentheses at work:

Lonny is visiting his aunt (his father’s sister) for the holidays.

Be sure to bring all required documents (including a valid ID) to the appointment.

Amber’s identity was stolen when a criminal got the PIN (personal identification number) to her online bank account.

The case goes before the judge next week. (Will the lawyers be ready?)

Possessive Nouns and Pronouns

Possessive nouns usually occur when you add an apostrophe to a noun (Shanda’s, Patty’s, Ben’s, etc.), whereas possessive pronouns are their own separate words (mine, yours, his, etc.). Possessives can get especially tricky when dealing with plurals (families’ and family’s are both correct depending on the context), so be sure to review plural possessive rules.

Items in a Series

Sometimes, three or more items are listed within a sentence. These items, whether verbs, nouns, infinitives, etc., should be separated correctly to avoid confusion. Commas (,) and semicolons (;) can be used, but the comma is the most common choice. Review rules for correctly separating items in a series.

Nonrestrictive and Parenthetical Elements

These are nonessential items within a sentence. These phrases usually give extra information that informs the reader but isn’t totally necessary to the writer’s purpose. Correct punctuation must set these elements apart from the essential parts of the sentence. Review rules for parenthetical elements and the types of punctuation used to set them apart, such as parentheses [( )] and commas.

Unnecessary Punctuation

Using too many punctuation marks makes a sentence choppy and confusing. Commas are the most frequent culprit in unnecessary punctuation, so comma usage is a great point to review prior to the SAT. Being able to recognize and delete unnecessary marks is an important part of being an editor.