Description:
The Writing section of the SAT tests your knowledge of grammar skills.
You will need to identify grammatical errors, fix mistakes, and
properly use punctuation.
Approach:
The Writing section is made up of three types of questions:
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Sentence Correction Questions
ask you to pick the best way to rewrite a poorly written sentence.
-
Error Identification Questions
ask you to spot the error in a sentence.
-
Revision-in-Context Questsions
ask you to improve a short, badly written passage.
1) Sentence Correction Questions
These questions will have a large part of the sentence underlined.
Your job is to replace the underlined portion with a better option
from the answer choices.
Which answer choice rephrases the sentence in the best way?
Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first book
and she was sixty-five years old then.
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and she was sixty-five years old then.
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when she was sixty-five years old.
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at age sixty-five.
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upon reaching the age of sixty-five years.
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at the time when she was sixty-five.
Tips for Sentence Correction
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Short is Sweet!
Short answers tend to be right a lot.
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Watch for -ing verbs...they are usually wrong.
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Look out for run-on sentences and sentence fragments.
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Treat answer (A) (which is the same as the original
underlined portion) just like any other answer.
2) Error Identification Questions
These questions have four phrases underlined. Your job is to pick
the underlined portion that is incorrect, or choose NO ERROR (answer E)
if there is nothing wrong with the sentence.
Which underlined part of the following sentence is incorrect?
Him
and
the other delegates
immediately
accepted the resolution
drafted by
the neutral states.
-
Him
-
the other delegates
-
immediately
-
drafted by
-
NO ERROR
Tips for Error Identification
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Look for verb errors.
There are many issues with verbs in these questions.
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Treat answer (E) (NO ERROR) just like any other answer.
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Trust your ear...most of the time.
On the first half of these sections (questions 12 - 21), you can
probably trust your ear. If something sounds wrong, it's probably
wrong. However, on the second half (questions 22 - 29) you shouldn't
rely on your ear to tell you the answer.
3) Revision-in-Context Questions
These questions will ask you to improve a short reading passages by
editing phrases, moving sentences, and improving the flow of the excerpt.
Here's a brief sample from a Revision-in-Context passage:
"...After graduating from Yale at the top of his class,
Jermaine wanted to take a vacation. He decided that he would like to be
spending his summer in Europe, he wanted to be a traveler."
What is the best way to rewrite the second sentence above?
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He decided that he would like to be spending his summer in Europe,
he wanted to be a traveler.
-
He decided that he would like to spend his summer in Europe, he
wanted to be a traveler.
-
He decided that he would like to be spending his summer in Europe,
because he wanted to be a traveler.
-
He decided that he would like to spend his summer in Europe, because
he wanted to be a traveler.
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He decided that he would like spending his summer in Europe, he
wanted to be a traveler.
Tips for Revision-in-Context
-
Trust your instincts.
You've done this a lot. This section is basically like editing a paper.
If it makes sense and sounds pretty good, it's probably correct...just
like when you're editing that old five paragraph essay.
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It's all about context.
On every question, you need to go back to the passage and read the
sentence or two before and after the sentence in the question.
