How to Write an SAT Essay

Have you ever thought about how to tackle the SAT essay? Well, here is a glimpse of all that you need to know when it comes to such kind of essay. Your instructor will ask you to go through a speech, and thereafter, you will be required to discuss how the author has developed their argument. Most students believe that preparing for an SAT essay is one of the most stressful moments since the essay’s outcome plays a significant role in determining college acceptance. Apparently, writing such kind of an essay might be similar to some tasks you have done while in school where you were told to analyze a passage. However, if you cannot relate to such an assignment, that should not worry you. The good thing about the essay is that they have a straightforward format, which any student can master after a few practices. Alternatively, if you find yourself struggling to develop an excellent SAT essay, you can always seek assistance from companies providing essay writing services. You will not have to worry about the long and tedious process of writing your papers.

Great SAT essay

One of the good things about SAT essays is that they are optional. However, students willing to pursue it will have to part with an additional fee of $17.00. At present, there are only 25 universities and colleges that require SAT essays. Regardless of whether you had not written an SAT essay before or you did not manage to get the scores you had targeted in your previous test, the good thing is that you can still benefit from gaining more knowledge about the essay itself as well as understanding what really matters when it comes to writing such kind of an essay.

To the people who have not written this kind of an assignment before, you need to know that SAT essays are usually concise. Your instructor will give you approximately 50 minutes to go through a 650-750 words article, analyze how the writer has organized their argument, and, thereafter, write an essay. If you are not careful enough, you may realize that your time is almost finished before you are even half-way through your assignment. Unlike the essays you have been writing for your English classes, writing SAT essays requires an individual to take a different kind of approach. The main objective of an SAT essay is to cram as much as possible about the examined components within the estimated duration.

SAT Essay Tips

Read the instructions carefully

Before you begin writing your essay, ensure that you have understood all the instructions. Apparently, it is better to take more time to understand the essay’s guidelines rather than writing an irrelevant essay. By understanding the instructions, you will save yourself from the stress of having to redo your paper.

Plan your time wisely

You should develop a plan before you begin writing your essay. Ask yourself questions such as how much time will you dedicate to come up with an idea? Drafting? Re-reading? Editing? Planning your time wisely before you can start to write may save you from a headache later on when you are short of time to complete your paper.

Develop an outline

Developing an outline will assist you to save a lot of time during the drafting process. Always ensure that you have included every essential element in your outline. Have a strong introduction that will grab your audience’s attention and maintain it throughout your paper. Also, have strong body paragraphs that support your thesis statement. Your conclusion should reinstate your main ideas. While writing, always thinks of yourself as a coach where you must provide feedback on the persuasion tactics used by the author. Mention which of the tactics were most effective, and some of the changes that could have been made to influence the audience more.

Understand your audience

Every time you write your paper, keep in mind the person who is going to read your essay. Therefore, ensure that you use an appropriate voice and tone. Always keep in mind that your reader’s main objective is not to be entertained but to evaluate your writing. Some of the most effective ways of winning over your readers when it comes to writing SAT essays include; using rhetorical devices such as metaphors, providing historical examples, providing anecdotal examples, raising a question, or objecting a counter-argument.

Avoid including your personal views

The main objective of the SAT essay is to analyze an argument as opposed to providing personal views. Apparently, if you find yourself trying to disagree or defend an article, simply know that you are missing out on the chance to analyze the structure of the paper as well as the argument.

SAT essay scoring

After completing your SAT essay, it will be evaluated using three criteria, which include; Writing, Analysis, and Reading. The reading criterion is meant for gauging how well a student has understood the content of a passage or article. Did you just read it, or you understood the information presented in the readings. Your readers will be assessing whether you read the passage keenly and noticed the nuance of the piece more particularly if the details are not intuitive.

The analysis criterion is meant for gauging how well you have represented the arguments made by the author. Your main objective as a writer is to determine the writer’s main arguments and, thereafter, explain how well they have been represented.

The final criterion, which is writing, is meant to evaluate your command of the English language. It also involves your ability to write clearly and develop well-structured sentences through the use of strong vocabulary.

There are two readers who will grade your essay with a score of 1-4, depending on how the reader thinks you did well in each of the categories, as mentioned above. Whereas the lowest possible grade is 2, 2, 2, the highest possible grade, on the other hand, is 8, 8, 8. If you want to get a good SAT score, you should work towards scoring at least 6 out of 8 in all the three categories being examined. However, it will be exemplary impressive if you could attain 8 in all the areas. It will indicate that your writing skills are above average in a standardized essay.

SAT Essay Template

An SAT essay template should comprise five essential components: the introduction, thesis statement, examples supporting the thesis statement, Explanation of the examples presented, and finally, the conclusion.

Introduction

The introduction is the first thing the grader will notice about your essay. It will either build or destroy the reader’s interest to go through your paper. While writing your essay, do not start writing the argumentative techniques used in writing the article or passage. Instead, you should introduce your SAT essay will a statement describing what the author is talking about in the passage. Thereafter, you can proceed to mention the specific argumentative techniques that have been used in discussing the article.

A clear thesis statement

The thesis statement is one of the most critical elements in any type of academic writing. In the thesis statement, you should state a precise claim of what are the author’s points as well as the techniques that have been used in discussing the points presented. If you do not structure your thesis statement this way, you will not be answering the questions in the required way.

Students should remember that when writing their SAT essays, the graders will not be interested in what your stance on the topic is, but how well you can describe the author’s argumentative techniques in the passage. A poorly written thesis statement makes it difficult for the reader to understand the features of the author’s argument when analyzing a passage.

Examples that support your thesis statement

To support your thesis statement, you need to provide clear examples from the passage you are analyzing. Always ensure that you provide as much information as possible for every example you use and describe how it relates to your thesis statement. Apparently, there is no need for you to paraphrase the entire passage or provide an explanation of whether you agree or disagree with the arguments presented by the author.

Explain the examples that support your thesis statement

Paraphrasing or summarizing a passage is never enough when writing an SAT essay. Therefore, in each paragraph, you should include details about an example and explain how each of them exhibits an argumentative technique. A good example is when you want to analyze how the author makes use of vivid language to convince the audience to believe a particular side of an argument. Although you may begin your paragraph by quoting some parts of the passage, you also need to describe how it can persuade the readers.

Conclusion

You need to reinstate your thesis statement as well as the main arguments in your conclusion. Similar to other academic papers, you should avoid introducing new ideas or other concepts you did not discuss in the conclusion.

SAT essay format

Now that you have a clear idea of developing an outline of your essay, it is also essential that you know how to format it. You do not expect to write an excellent paper by writing your thesis statement and support using a few examples. Your essay needs to be organized so that your ideas can flow smoothly from one paragraph to the next. As you format your paper, you need to arrange it based on the five-paragraph format. Similar to the essays you used to write while in high school, your SAT essay should be divided into an introduction, two to three body paragraphs (each paragraph should contain a single argument), and finally, a conclusion. Your thesis statement, which summarizes your paper’s main ideas, should be placed at the introduction and the conclusion with differently phrased sentences. The following is an example of an SAT essay format;

Introduction:

Should contain 4-5 sentences

Should begin with a statement of what the author is arguing

Should contain a well-written thesis statement

Example 1:

Should contain 7-10 sentences

There should be a smooth transition from the introduction to one of the examples that demonstrates an argumentative technique.

Example 2:

Should contain 7-10 sentences

There should be a smooth transition from the previous paragraphs to the next example, which demonstrates an argumentative technique.

Should explain why the example strengthens the passage.

Example 3: (optional)

Should contain 7-10 sentences

There should be a smooth transition from the previous paragraphs to the third example, which demonstrates an argumentative technique.

Should explain why the example strengthens the passage.

SAT essay sample

In response to the increasing resilience to artificial light, the author claims that natural darkness should also be preserved by stating, “Let there be darkness”. The author effectively builds his arguments using rhetorical questions, history, allusions to art, and personal anecdotes. The author begins the passage by giving a personal story where he spent his summer in the woods, where there was too much darkness. By telling his story, the author challenged the readers to recall any time in their life where they had spent time in the darkness. The author is trying to create a potential sense of awe-inspiring mystery, glamour, and beauty that can be possessed by natural darkness.

Concluding remarks

Preparing for an examination is often filled with a lot of anxiety and stress. Some students also go to the extent of being depressed. On the same note, scoring impressive grades on a test is an uphill task since you will be required to devote a significant amount of your time to prepare for the test. It is usual for a person to feel bad and withdrawn when they do not perform well in a test; they had spent a lot of time making preparation. However, you should never give up on working towards improving your writing skills. Although things might not be working well presently, they will surely take a different twist in the future. Continue being hopeful.