Whats Tested on the SAT Writing Section Grammar and Questions

What's Tested on the SAT Writing Section Grammar and Questions SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips "Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers." If Isaac Asimov weretalking about the SAT Writing and Language section, he would probably add that he would have to think through his fingers fast. With 35 minutes for 44multiple choice questions, you have to work quickly and efficiently to achieve a high score. Let's go over the Writing and Language section in detail so you know exactly what to expect. Format of the SAT Writing The Writing and Language section is your second section on the SAT. Writing and Language, together with Reading, makes up your verbal score (aka, "Evidence-based Reading and Writing" score). This section is35 minutes long and asks you 44 multiple choice questions. All of the questions are based on passages. In fact, there are four passages followed by 11 questions each. Thepassages are sourced from the areas of Careers, Social Studies, the Humanities, and Science: Careers passages might discuss trends or debates in major professional fields, like medicine, technology, or business. Social studies passages might draw from history, anthropology, psychology, political science, or sociology. Humanities passages could feature an author or explore trends in literature or the arts, includingprose, poetry, art, music, or dance. Science passages will focus on topics in earth science, biology, chemistry, or physics. You won't get any prose; all of the passages will be nonfiction, explanatory, or argument-based. One or more will also be accompanied by a related graphic, like a chart, table, or graph. The thing you need to know about theWriting and Language passages is that they're full of problems. They willbe riddled with errorsin punctuation, word choice, sentence structure, and organization. The multiple choice questions will point to various parts of the passages andask you if and how each partshould be fixed. The Writing and Language section tests your editorial skills. Let's take a closer look at how it does this. Writing and Language: Testing Your Editorial Skills Writing and Language asks you to read error-strewn passages and make them better. First, you have to recognize whether or not there is an error.If there is, then you have to choose the answer that would fix or improve the sentence, paragraph, or passage. To accomplishthis task, you need to understand grammar rules andhow to organizeideasanduse transitional words and phrases. According to College Board, Writing and Language questions test four main skills area: Command of Evidence, Words in Context, Expression of Ideas, Standard English Conventions. A little over half of questions ask about the first three skills areas and have to do with the development and organization of ideas and effective language use. The other half of questions cover Standard English Conventions. These questions ask about sentence structure, usage, and punctuation. They tend to be more detail-oriented questions. Let's take a closer look at each of these skill areas and what they test, along with an official sample question in each. 1. Command of Evidence Command of Evidence questions tend to look at the big picture. They want you to improve the way a passage presents information or imparts meaning. You might need to add a supporting detail, introductory sentence, or conclusion to make a passage more impactful. These questions often ask you to include the reason for making a change (ie, your "evidence").This sample question falls into the Command of Evidence category. It wants you to strengthen a passage and provide your reasoning behind choosing a particular answer. Picking up on context clues is very important! How else are you going to figure out that it was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the billiard room? 2. Words in Context Words in Context are more detail-oriented than Command of Evidence questions, as they point to a particular word. You might need to replace a word that doesn't make sense or choose one that works better in itsparticular context. None of the words will be particularly advanced, but they might be ones that are easily confused (e.g. the words "outperform, outweigh, and outdo") or that take on different meanings depending on context. As with many Writing questions, Words in Context questions will have the option of "No Change."Before thinking about how to replace the word, you have to decide whether or not there's a problem in the first place. Here's a typical example of a Words in Context question in SAT Writing and Language. 3. Expression of Ideas As their category indicates, Expression of Ideas questions ask you to think about how ideas are expressed. You might rearrange the order of sentences to improve flow or strengthen an argument. You might also choose to delete a sentence completely. These are "big picture" questions that ask you to make revisions that would make the passage more impactful. The following is an example of an Expression of Ideas question on the SAT. 4. Standard English Conventions Almost half of the SAT Writing questions fall into this Standard English Conventions category. Here's where your understanding of grammar and punctuation rules comes into play. These questions ask you to fix errors in sentences and clauses. You might edit for errors in verb tense, subject-verb agreement, pronoun use,parallel construction, commas, or apostrophes. The following example, for instance, asks you to distinguish between "there" and "their" and to make sure the phrase under considerationhas propersubject-verb agreement. The second question testscomma rules. In addition to these four major skill areas in Writing and Language, Command of Evidence, Words in Context, Expression of Ideas, and Standard English Conventions, you'll also encounter another question type that calls for its own special prep. About 2% to 4% of questions will be about data interpretation. On the redesigned SAT, data is all around you. Extra Question Type: Data Interpretation As you read above, one or more of the passages in Writing and Language will be accompanied by a graphic, like a chart, table, graph, or some other visual that communicates data. The graphic will be related to the passage in some way, but it might be described incorrectly. Questions couldask you to revisean incorrect representation of the data or to add a sentence based on data to strengthen an argument. Here's an example of a data interpretation question on Writing and Language. The data interpretation questions are the only ones of the Writing section where you might have to flip between pages to read the question and then consult the graph. As you can see in the samples, all of the other questions should line up directly with the part(s) of the passage to which they refer. Now that you have a sense of the skills and question types on this section, read on for some key study tips to prepare for SAT Writing and Language. Get out your red pen. College Board has just given you the job ofEditor-in-Chief. How toStudy for SAT Writing and Language The SAT Writing and Language section asks you to be an editor. It presents you with flawed passages, and your job is to make them better. You might improve a word, fix a punctuation mistake, rearrange ideas, or add sentences to improve flow. While some of your editorial skills are the cumulative result of years of reading and reading, how can you take specific steps to prepare yourself for the SAT Writing section? Read on for sixstudy tips to help you achieve your target scores. 1. Study Grammar Rules Almost half of the questions on the Writing section ask you to fix an error in grammar, usage, or punctuation. While grammar rules aren't the only part of your SAT Writing prep, they are a big part. To prepare, you should make sure you understand the most commonly tested grammar rules, like subject-verb agreement, parallel structure, and simplifying wordiness. By knowing the rule, you can pick up on what a question is asking you. Then you can confidently locatethe right answer, rather than simply relying on what sounds or looks right. Get a firm grasp of grammar and usage rules so you can master these question types on SAT Writing. 2. Study Punctuation Rules The old SAT didn't ask about punctuation, but the redesigned test does. You may need to fix a comma, apostrophe, semicolon, colon, or period, perhaps combining phrases into one sentence or separating a run-on into two sentences. Make sure to review the most commonly tested punctuationrulesand then test your understanding with official practice questions. Pair each rule with relevant practice questions to reinforce the concept. Then take practice tests where the questions are all mixed up in random order to make sure you can recall the relevant punctuation rule when you get tested on it. These questions are tricky if you don't know, for example, the right way to use a semicolon. If you do, though, then they're a piece of cake. 3. Read Essays and Newspaper Articles As you read above, all of the passages on the Writing section ask about nonfiction, explanatory, or argument-based texts. If you've spent English classes only reading literature, likeThe Great Gatsby and The Crucible, then you might need extra practice with non-prose texts. Somegreat sources forpractice are nonfiction essays and newspaper articles. Read with an analytical eye, perhaps circling transitional words and taking notes on the margins about how ideas are organized or how an author builds an argument. Deconstruct the text in front of you just as an editor would. If a passage strikes you as particularly strong, try to pick apart why it's so strong. If it fails to impress, note what you would change to make it more impactful. Developing your editorial eye is key for doing well on the SAT Writing and Language section, where your primary task is to edit and revise pieces of writing. Look alive! You need to stay alert tomake it through the long winter of SAT prep. 4. Pay Attention to Feedback on Your Writing Do any of your teachers give you editorial feedback on your writing? If so, don't just go straight to the grade and ignore the marks and comments. The marks and comments are key to developing an understanding of edits and revisions. Study them closely, and ask questions if you don't understand any. Similarly, you might go out of your way to ask your English teacher, for example, to give you feedback on a piece of writing. Or you could become aneditor yourself and trade comments with a peer. If you get feedback on your papers, pay close attention - it will help you become a better writer, which will, in turn, help you do better on the Writing section of the SAT! 5. Study Multiple-Meaning Words Some of the questions in SAT Writing fall into the Words in Context category. None of the highlighted terms are particularly obscure or advanced. Instead, they're relatively common words that may change meaning depending on context. Studying mid-level, multiple-meaning words will help you for both the Writing and Reading sections of the SAT. Beyond studying word lists, pay attention to how certain words shift depending on how they're being used. This understanding, along with the ability to pick up on context clues, will help you masterWords in Context questions. 6. Practice Interpretating Data from Graphics Finally, you'll get a few questions asking you to interpret data from graphics. These questions require an understanding of the graphic, plus they might ask you to go one step further to fix a mistake or insert a description into the passage. You can hone this skill in your Science and History classes, with SAT practice questions, and even with ACT Science questions (though, of course, not all the Writing data interpretation questions will necessarily be related to Science). Make sure that you can grasp a variety of charts and graphs, like pie charts, line graphs, scatterplots, bar graphs, and tables. While data interpretation may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about a writing test, it needs to be part of your prep for SAT Writing and Language. By honing your editorial and data interpretation skills, along with learning exactly what's tested on this second section of the SAT, you'll be one step closer to your goals. In closing, let's review the key points that you need to know about the Writing and Language section of the SAT. SAT Writing and Language: Key Points SAT Writing is your second section on the SAT, and all the questions are multiple choice and passage-based. This section asks you to be an editor and to fix errors in grammar, punctuation, and organization. Your job, simply put, is to make a flawed piece of writing better. To prepare for this section, you should study rules of grammar, usage, and punctuation. Beyond these rules, you should read and write widely, keeping a critical eye on structure and flow, to hone your editorial skills. You might also practice peer editing with a friend, as well as pay close attention to any feedback you get on your own writing from teachers. The Writing and Language section makes up half your verbal score, while the first section of the SAT, Reading, makes up the other half. By learning all about the skills tested, question types, and study strategies, you're well on your way to achieving your target verbal scores. What's Next? Is writing your strong subject, and you want the SAT score to prove it? This perfect scorer gives you 11 strategies forgetting a perfect score. Feeling unsure about data interpretation questions? This guide tells you how to analyze graphics on the Writing and Reading sections of the SAT. Official SAT practice tests are the gold standard for high quality practice questions. Download 8 free printable official SAT tests here. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by SAT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Hypotaxis in English Sentence Structure

Hypotaxis in English Sentence Structure Hypotaxis also called subordinating style, is a grammatical and rhetorical  term used to describe an arrangement of phrases or clauses in a dependent or subordinate relationship that is, phrases or clauses ordered one under another. In hypotactic constructions, subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns serve to connect the dependent elements to the  main clause. Hypotaxis comes from the Greek word for subjection. In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics,  John Burt points out that hypotaxis can also extend beyond the sentence boundary, in which case the term refers to a style in which the logical relationships among sentences are explicitly rendered.In Cohesion in English,  M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan identify three primary types of hypotactic relation: Condition (expressed by clauses of condition, concession, cause, purpose, etc.); addition (expressed by the non-defining relative clause); and report.They also note that hypotactic and paratactic structures may combine freely in a single clause complex. Examples and Observations on Hypotaxis One December morning near the end of the year when snow was falling moist and heavy for miles all around so that the earth and the sky were indivisible, Mrs. Bridge emerged from her home and spread her umbrella. Evan S. Connell, Mrs. Bridge (1959)Let the reader be introduced to Joan Didion, upon whose character and doings much will depend on whatever interest these pages may have, as she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own house on Welbeck Street. Joan Didion, Democracy  (1984)When I was around nine or ten I wrote a play which was directed by a young, white schoolteacher, a woman, who then took an interest in me, and gave me books to read, and, in order to corroborate my theatrical bent, decided to take me to see what she somewhat tactlessly referred to as real plays. James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (1955)Samuel Johnsons Hypotactic StyleAmong  the innumerable practices by which  interest or envy have taught those who live upon literary fame to disturb each other at their airy banquets, one of the most common is the charge of plagiarism. When the excellence of a new composition can no longer be contested, and malice is compelled to give way to the unanimity of applause, there is yet this one expedient to be tried, by which the author may be degraded, though his work be reverenced; and the excellence which we cannot obscure, may be set at such a distance as not to overpower our fainter lustre. This accusation is dangerous, because, even when it is false, it may be sometimes urged with probability.   Samuel Johnson, The Rambler  (July 1751) Virginia Woolfs Hypotactic StyleConsidering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to view, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us by the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the waters of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and the harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist’s arm-chair and confuse his Rinse the mouth rinse the mouth with the greeting of the Deity stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome us when we think of this, as we are so frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature. Virginia Woolf, On Being Ill, New Criterion (January 1926) Oliver Wendell Holmes Use of HypotaxisIf you have advanced in line and have seen ahead of you the spot you must pass where the rifle bullets are striking; if you have ridden at night at a walk toward the blue line of fire at the dead angle of Spottsylvania, where for twenty-four hours the soldiers were fighting on the two sides of an earthwork, and in the morning the dead and dying lay piled in a row six deep, and as you rode you heard the bullets splashing in the mud and earth about you; if you have been in the picket-line at night in a black and unknown wood, have heard the splat of the bullets upon the trees, and as you moved have felt your foot slip upon a dead mans body; if you have had a blind fierce gallop against the enemy, with your blood up and a pace that left no time for fear if, in short, as some, I hope many, who hear me, have known, you have known the vicissitudes of terror and triumph in war; you know that there is such a thing as the faith I spoke of. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., The Soldiers Faith (May 1895)Holmes, a thrice-wounded officer of the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteers, knew whereof he spoke, certainly. The passage [above] is drawn up like lines of battle, if clauses (the protasis) that one has to pass one-by-one before reaching the then clause (the apodosis). The syntax is, in the literal sense of the Greek, a line of battle. The sentence ... seems to map a series of Civil War skirmish lines. This is hypotactic arrangement for certain. Richard A. Lanham, Analyzing Prose (2003) Parataxis and HypotaxisTheres nothing wrong with parataxis. Its good, simple, plain, clean-living, hard-working, up-bright-and-early English. Wham. Bam. Thank you, maam.[George] Orwell liked it. [Ernest] Hemingway liked it. Almost no English writer between 1650 and 1850 liked it.The alternative, should you, or any writer of English, choose to employ it (and who is to stop you?) is, by use of subordinate clause upon subordinate clause,  which itself may be subordinated to those clauses that have gone before or after, to construct a sentence of such labyrinthine grammatical complexity that, like Theseus before you when he searched the dark Minoan mazes for that monstrous monster, half bull and half man, or rather half woman for it had been conceived from, or in, Pasiphae, herself within a Daedalian contraption of perverted invention, you must unravel a ball of grammatical yarn lest you wander forever, amazed in the maze, searching through dark eternity for a full stop.Thats hypotaxis , and it used to be everywhere. Its hard to say who started it, but the best candidate was a chap called Sir Thomas Browne. Mark Forsyth, The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase (2013)Classical and 18th-century hypotaxis suggests the virtues of balance and order; biblical and 20th-century parataxis (Hemingway, Salinger, McCarthy) suggest a democratic leveling and an inversion of natural power relations (the voice of the expatriate, the disillusioned, the outlaw). Hypotaxis is the structure of sober refinement and discrimination; parataxis the structure of intoxication and divinely inspired utterance. Timothy Michael, British Romanticism and the Critique of Political Reason  Ã‚  (2016) Characteristics of Hypotactic ProseHypotactic style allows syntax and structure to supply useful information. Instead of [a] simple juxtaposition of elements by way of simple and compound sentences, hypotactic structures rely more on complex sentences to establish relationships among elements. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) observed, The hypotactic construction is the argumentative construction par excellence. Hypotaxis creates frameworks [and] constitutes the adoption of a position. James Jasinski, Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies  (2001)The subordinating style orders its components in relationships of causality (one event or state is caused by another), temporality (events and states are prior or subsequent to one another), and precedence (events and states are arranged in hierarchies of importance). It was the books I read in high school rather than those I was assigned in college that influenced the choices I find myself making today two actions, one of which is prior to the other and has more significant effects that continue into the present. Stanley Fish, How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One  (2011)