Feb 26, · Instead, consider the average SAT scores. In general, a university will consider anything above average a good SAT score. We did the math for you. In , the average SAT essay scores for students graduating high school were: Reading - 5/8; Writing - 5/8; Analysis - 3/8Author: Jordan Coleman SAT essay prompt evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims. reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence. stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed The SAT essay prompts have several important things in common: They’re all passages that try to convince the reader of the veracity of the author’s claim They’re all around the same length ( words) They’re all meant to be analyzed and written about in a relatively short period of time (50
What is a Good SAT Essay Score?
SAT Essay, good sat essay. Just as with most essays, good sat essay, the major secret to excelling on the SAT essay is to pre-plan the examples and evidence you want to use. The answer: Yes and no. By assembling a collection of these reliable types of evidence that can be used to answer most prompts, you'll cut down on planning time and significantly increase the amount you can write, making you able to walk into every SAT essay confident in your abilities.
In Januarythe College Board announced that after Juneit would no longer be offering the Essay portion of the SAT except to schools who opt in during School Day Testing. While most colleges had already moved to good sat essay SAT Essay scores optional, this move by the College Board will likely lead to most schools making college application changes like not looking at essay scores at all for the SAT and ACT or potentially requiring good sat essay writing samples for placement.
Learn more about what the end of the SAT Essay means for your college apps and what to do if you're signed up for the Essay test and no longer want to take it with this article.
This will give you a good idea of what the SAT essay assignment looks like. Then come back to this article. This means that you can have a pretty good idea ahead of time of what types of argument-building techniques you might see when you open good sat essay booklet on test day. However, if you struggle with analysis in a short period of time, memorizing these categories of examples ahead of time can give you a helpful checklist to go through when reading the SAT essay prompt and point you in the right direction.
For each example below, we also show you how you can use the type of evidence to support your thesis across a range of prompts, good sat essay. This flexibility should prove to you how effective pre-planned examples are. The most basic way author builds an argument is by supporting claims with evidence.
These two types of evidence are Facts and Statistics and Anecdotes. Employing statistics and facts to bolster one's argument is one of the most unassailable methods authors can use to build an argument.
This argument-building technique is particularly common in essays written about scientific or social studies-related topics, good sat essay, where specific data and facts are readily available. Statistics usually show up in the form of specific numbers related to the topic at hand —maybe as percents, or maybe as a way to communicate other data. Here are a couple of examples of statistics from an official SAT essay prompt, "Let There Be Good sat essay by Paul Bogard :.
Example : 8 of 10 children born in the United States will never know a sky dark enough for the Milky Way. Factual evidence can also be in the form of non-numerical information. Often, you'll see facts presented with references to the research study, survey, expert, or other source from which they're drawn. Here's another example from "Let There Be Dark":.
Example : Already the World Health Organization classifies working the night shift as a probable human carcinogen[. By presenting information and facts, rather than just opinion and spin, Bogard empowers the reader to connect the dots on her own, which in turn gives the reader ownership over the argument and makes it more persuasive since the reader is coming to the same conclusions on her own, rather than entirely relying on Bogard to tell her what to think.
Another form of evidence that is often used as an alternative to actual facts or statistics is the anecdote. This type of evidence is most often found in speeches or other sorts of essay prompts that are written as a personal address to the reader. An anecdote is a short story about a real person or event.
When an author discusses own personal experience or personal experience of someone they know or have heard of, that's anecdotal evidence. Here's an example of part of an anecdote from an official SAT essay prompt that was adapted from a foreword by former U. President Jimmy Carter :. One of the most unforgettable and humbling experiences of our lives occurred on the coastal plain. We had hoped to see caribou during our trip, but to our amazement, good sat essay witnessed the migration of tens of thousands of caribou with their newborn calves.
In a matter of a few minutes, the sweep of tundra before us became flooded with life, with the sounds of grunting animals and clicking hooves filling good sat essay air. The dramatic procession of the Porcupine caribou herd was a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife spectacle. People tend to put more faith in experiences if they can personally connect with the experiences even though that doesn't actually affect how likely or not a statement is to be true.
In the example above, good sat essay, rather than discussing the statistics that support the creation of wildlife refuges, Jimmy Carter instead uses an anecdote about experiencing the wonder of nature to illustrate the same point—probably more effectively. By inviting the reader to experience vicariously the majesty of witnessing the migration of the Porcupine caribou, good sat essay, Carter activates the reader's empathy towards wildlife preservation and so makes it more likely that the reader will agree with him that wildlife refuges are important, good sat essay.
Sometimes, though, the support for a claim on its own might not seem that persuasive—in those cases, an author might then choose to use reasoning to explain how the evidence presented actually builds the argument.
One way in which an author might use reasoning to persuade the reader to accept the claim being put forward is to discuss a counterargument, or counterclaim, good sat essay, to the author's main point.
The discussion and subsequent neutralization of counterarguments is found in prompts across all subject areas. A counterargument or counterclaim is simply another point of view that contradicts either fully or partially the author's own argument. When "some might claim," "however," or other contrast words and phrases show up in an essay prompt, the author is likely presenting a counterclaim.
Here's an example of an effective presentation and negation of a counter claim from an official SAT essay prompt, "The Digital Parent Trap" by Eliana Dockterman :. Waldorf kids knit and build things and paint—a lot of really practical and creative endeavors.
While there are dangers inherent in access to Facebook, new research suggests that social-networking sites also offer unprecedented learning opportunities, good sat essay. So how does bringing up an opposing point of view help good sat essay author build her argument? It may seem counterintuitive that discussing a counterargument actually strengthens the main argument.
A true discussion of the counterargument as is present in Dockterman's article will also show a deeper understanding of the topic than if the article only presented a one-sided good sat essay. And because the presence of a counterargument demonstrates that the author knows the topic well enough to be able to see the issue from multiple sides, the reader's more likely to trust that the author's claims are well-thought out and worth believing.
In the case of the Dockterman article, the author not only mentions the opposite point of view but also takes the time to get a quote from someone who supports the opposing viewpoint.
This even-handedness makes her following claim that "it's not that simple" more believable, since she doesn't appear to be presenting a one-sided argument, good sat essay. In some cases, the clarity with which the author links her evidence and her claims is integral to the author's argument.
As the College Board Official SAT Study Guide says, good sat essay. Reasoning is the connective tissue that holds an argument together. Explanation of evidence is one of the trickier argument-building techniques to discuss at least in my opinionbecause while it is present in many essay prompts, it isn't good sat essay a major persuasive feature, good sat essay.
You can pretty easily identify an author's explanation of evidence if the author connects a claim to support and explains itrather than just throwing out evidence without much ceremony or linking to the claim; however, good sat essay, whether or not the explanation of the evidence is a major contributing factor to the author's argument is somewhat subjective.
Here's a pretty clear instance of a case where an author uses explanations of each piece of evidence she discusses to logically advance her argument again from the Dockterman passage :, good sat essay. The reason: engagement, good sat essay. Unfortunately, the explanation the Official SAT Study Guide gives for how to discuss an author's "reasoning" is a little vague:.
You may decide to discuss how the author uses or fails to use clear, logical reasoning to draw a good sat essay between a claim and the evidence supporting that claim, good sat essay. But how exactly you should go about doing good sat essay And wh y is it persuasive to clearly explain the link between evidence and claim? In the Dockterman example above, the author clearly lays out data Civilization leads to improvements in history classa claim this is because of engagement with the game and thus the subject materialgood sat essay, provides data that back up that claim retention rate skyrockets when students do things for themselves good sat essay, and links that smaller claim to a larger concept actively browsing pages on a computer or tablet is way more brain-stimulating than vegging out in front of the TV.
This clear pattern of data-explanation-more data-more explanation enables the reader to follow along with Dockterman's points. It's more persuasive because, rather than just being told " Civilization leads to improvements in history" and having to take it on faith, the reader is forced to reenact the thinking processes that led to the argument, good sat essay, engaging with the topic on a deeper level, good sat essay.
Good sat essay final category of examples is the top layer of argument building. The foundation of a good argument is evidence, which is often explained and elucidated by reasoning, good sat essay, but it is often the addition good sat essay stylistic or persuasive elements like an ironic tone or a rhetorical flourish that seals the deal. Vivid language is truly the icing on the persuasive cake. As with explanations of evidence, vivid language can be found across all topics of essay prompts although it usually plays a larger role when the passage is lacking in more convincing facts or logic.
Here are a couple of examples—the first is Paul Bogard again:. This example is relatively restrained, using the metaphor of "a blanket of light" to add emphasis to Bogard's discussion of light pollution. A more striking example can be found in another official SAT essay prompt, adapted from Good sat essay Luther King, Jr. Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.
If used in moderation, vivid language will also make the topic more interesting for the reader to read, thus engaging them further. In the excerpt taken from Martin Luther Good sat essay Jr. If King had left out the second part of the sentence and only said, "Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money," his point would not have had as big good sat essay an impact.
The last category I'll be discussing in this article are direct addresses and appeals to the reader. These stylistic elements are found across all sorts of different passage topics, although as with the previous category, these elements usually play a larger role when the passage is light on facts or logic.
Direct addresses and appeals to the reader are wordings or other stylistic devices specifically designed to provoke a response often emotional in the reader, good sat essay. This category covers many good sat essay elements, good sat essay, from appeals to emotion to rhetorical questions.
Here's an example of an appeal to emotion, taken again from Martin Luther King, Jr. Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population.
Who knows what this vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren? Appealing to the emotionsas Martin Luther King, Jr.
does in his speech, is an alternate route to persuasion, as it causes readers to emotionally good sat essay than logically agree with the author. By describing how the war was causing "their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and die," King reminds the reader of the terrible costs of war, playing upon their emotions to get them to agree good sat essay the Vietnam War is a mistake, particularly for the poor.
Rhetorical questionson the other hand, get the readers to step into the author's world. By reading and thinking about the author's question, the reader engages with the topic on a deeper level than if the reader were just given a statement of what the author thinks.
As you can see, these examples of different argumentative techniques can be extracted from a lot of different article types for a wide range of topics. This is because the examples themselves are so meaningful and complex that they can be used to discuss a lot of issues. The main point is, you don't have to wait until you see the prompt to develop an arsenal of types of argument-building techniques you can use to support your points.
If you're reading this article, you probably want to excel on the SAT essay. We've written a bunch of detailed guides to make sure you do. Start to scratch the surface with our 15 tips to improve your SAT essay score. Took the old SAT and not sure how the new essay compares to the good sat essay Want to score a perfect SAT score? Check out our guide on how to score a perfect SAT scorewritten by our resident perfect scorer.
How a Good SAT® Essay Can Get a Bad Score
, time: 10:44What Is A Good SAT Essay Score? ( Recommended Guide)
Feb 26, · Instead, consider the average SAT scores. In general, a university will consider anything above average a good SAT score. We did the math for you. In , the average SAT essay scores for students graduating high school were: Reading - 5/8; Writing - 5/8; Analysis - 3/8Author: Jordan Coleman SAT essay prompt evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims. reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence. stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed The SAT essay prompts have several important things in common: They’re all passages that try to convince the reader of the veracity of the author’s claim They’re all around the same length ( words) They’re all meant to be analyzed and written about in a relatively short period of time (50
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