Fiveable's SAT Writing and Language Section Overview 📌

At last, the reading section is complete! After a quick testing break, the grammar-focused writing and language section of the SAT is up. Here's the inside scoop on how to tackle this test area. 💯 

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📚 Logistics and Content 

Equally distributed into four passages with 11 questions each, the writing and language portion of the SAT is 44 questions asked in a 35-minute time trial. 

Writing and Language Passages 

Thankfully, the passages for writing and language are a bit shorter than the reading section, averaging between 400-450 words. There are four different categories covered separately on the exam: 

• • 💼 Careers: discuss major jobs and their descriptions, trends, and problems.
• • 👩🏽‍⚖️ History/Social Studies: deal with matters in social studies, such as history, psychology, geography, economics, law, linguistics, etc. Both this passage and the science passage deal with studies and news in the field.
• • 🧪 Science: covers scientific information in subjects, including computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and earth science.
• • 🎭 Humanities: centers on topics related to English and the arts.

Passage Styles 

• • 🗯️ Argument: have a clear claim and try to support that claim with supporting evidence.
• • 📖 Narrative: tell a story in the traditional beginning, middle, and end structure. For this test, narratives will be nonfiction.
• • 🗣️ Informative/Explanatory: describe a topic to the reader. One of the four passages will include some data in the form of a table or graph, which is necessary to answer 2-3 questions in the passage. 

📝 SAT Writing and Language Question Types 

In the writing and language section, there are two columns. One column on the left consists of the passage, and the other column to the right includes all of the questions pertaining to five overarching categories: 

• • Command of Evidence 🔍
• • Words in Context 📖
• • Analysis in History/Social Studies and in Science 🌎
• • Expression of Ideas 💬
• • Standard English Conventions ✍️

🔍 Command of Evidence

Command of Evidence questions are a structural sleuthing task! This category emphasizes the importance of building a strong argument by changing the order of information for more powerful development, adding details that support a claim, or removing information that contradicts or weakens the stance of the argument.

📖 Words in Context

A question about Words in Context is looking to test whether students are able to improve the vocabulary or word choice of a given piece of text! Whether selecting a word to ensure the tone of a sentence is more consistent or making a syntax swap for clarity, this category is all about identifying the best word fit based on interpreting the surrounding passage text.

🌎 Analysis in History/Social Studies and in Science 

Text accuracy is pivotal! The SAT writing section has Science and Social Studies Analysis questions that ask for revisions to align a passage with information presented in accompanying data from charts, figures, and other informational graphics.  

💬 Expression of Ideas 

Questions in this category are more about how the claim of a passage is expressed. As opposed to grammar questions under Standard English Conventions, the Expression of Ideas type take a bit more time because they focus on the inherent structure of the writing, including tone and style, organization, precision, and syntax. 

✍️ Standard English Conventions: SAT Grammar Rules 

The Standard English Convention questions are primarily grammar questions regarding mechanics that may appear in everyday and academic writing. Instead of considering argument phrasing and whether or not it flows, there is a focus on the language used to convey ideas and make claims. Questions under this umbrella are related concepts like term agreement, punctuation, possessive determiners, etc. 

🤔 General Strategy 

Here are some tips that will work for most types of SAT Grammar questions: 

• • 🦜 Read with Repetition:  read the sentence loudly in your head to see what sounds right. Try a couple of the given options with repetition.
• • ✏️ Mark and Annotate: your test booklet is yours to mark! Scribble notes and ideas in the margins, underline, and annotate if it helps you understand the passage. Annotation is most helpful for the Expression of Ideas questions.
• • ❎ Process of Elimination: for questions with four answer choices: two options usually do not make sense, one is the correct answer, and the remaining option is a distraction that seems like it could be correct and isn't. By crossing out the answers you know are wrong, you increase your chance of success, especially if you have to make a guess. (Remember that you do not lose points for an incorrect answer, so you should ALWAYS put something down as an answer.)

🥱 TL;DR 

Get a top score on the SAT writing and language section by learning the SAT grammar rules and using our unique strategies. Practice, practice, and practice some more with grammar and conventions. Go forth and conquer -- you got this! 🥳.