Most of the questions you will see on the Writing and Language Test are not in question form, but there are some that appear as traditional multiple-choice questions. It’s important to read these carefully so you know exactly what is being asked and do not jump to conclusions. This chapter covers some typical questions you might see and strategies you can use to approach and simplify them.
As you have seen, many “questions” on the Writing and Language test aren’t questions at all, grammatically speaking. They’re just lists of answer choices, and you start the process of answering them by asking a question of your own: “What’s changing in the answer choices?”
Because you need to move quickly through this test, you may fall into the habit of not checking for actual questions. Even when you do read the questions, you may read them too hastily to understand what you are being asked. Well, we are here to tell you that neither of these approaches will work.
The most important thing about Writing and Language questions is that you notice those questions and then answer those questions.
This may seem like just about the most obvious advice you’ve ever been given, but you’d be surprised how much less precise your brain is when you’re working quickly.
Here’s an example. Do these next 10 questions as quickly as you can.
1. 2 + 1 =
2. 1 + 2 =
3. 3 + 1 =
4. 3 + 2 ≠
5. 1 + 2 =
6. 2 – 1 <
7. 2 ± 2 =
8. 3 + 1 =
9. 3 + 2 =
10. 3 + 3 ≠
Now check your answers.
1. 3
2. 3
3. 4
4. Anything but 5
5. 3
6. Any number greater than 1 (but not 1!)
7. 0 or 4
8. 4
9. 5
10. Anything but 6
Now, it’s very possible that you got at least one of those questions wrong. What happened? It’s not that the questions are difficult. In fact, the questions are about as easy as can be. So why did you get some of them wrong? You were probably moving too quickly to notice that the signs changed a few times.
This is a lot like the Writing and Language test. You might miss some of the easiest questions on the test by not reading carefully enough.
As you will see throughout this chapter, most of the questions will test concepts with which we are already familiar.
Many Writing and Language questions that have actual questions ask you to do something specific. Remember the ideas of consistent and precise from the Words chapter? Those are in play here too. Purpose questions can ask about a main idea or a detail, but either way your job is to identify the purpose and choose the answer that is most consistent with that purpose.
Here’s an example.
World War II is often cited as a turning point for women in the workforce in the U.S. What most people don’t realize is just how persistent that pay gap has been. The size of the gap may have narrowed in recent years, but we still have a long way to go. The problem has certainly gained a good deal of traction in public debates, which raises the question of why more isn’t being done to combat the gap.
1. Which choice best establishes the main idea of the paragraph?
A) NO CHANGE
B) When child labor laws were first enacted, many of them included provisions for mandatory schooling.
C) Most people are familiar with the idea of a gender pay gap.
D) Women still make up the vast majority of workers in fields associated with traditional female roles, such as child care, healthcare, and education.
Here’s How to Crack It
The purpose stated in this question is to establish the main idea of the paragraph. Before you can choose an answer for this type of question, you have to read the paragraph! Once you’ve read the paragraph, use POE, eliminating any answer choices that aren’t consistent with the topic of the paragraph.
The paragraph focuses on a pay gap, which you may infer has something to do with gender, but the idea of women in the workforce doesn’t directly connect with the idea of a pay gap; eliminate (A). The paragraph also doesn’t say anything about child labor, so eliminate (B). Choice (C) introduces the idea of a gender pay gap, which directly connects to the rest of the paragraph, so keep (C) while you check (D). The paragraph is not about the number of workers in particular fields, so eliminate (D). The correct answer is (C).
Try another example.
The question of unequal pay for women draws on many other broader social issues. The gender disparities persist in areas other than pay.
However, there are a few select fields in which women earn slightly more than men do.
There is a long history of misogyny written into the very cultural and social fabric of the United States.
2. Which choice best supports the idea in the previous sentence?
A) NO CHANGE
B) In the year 2020, women’s suffrage in the U.S. will be exactly one century old.
C) The removal of the military’s ban on women serving in combat marked the demise of one of the last official barriers to women’s ability to work in any field.
D) The field of financial services has one of the largest gender pay gaps in the United States.
Here’s How to Crack It
The purpose stated in the question is to support the idea in the previous sentence. The previous sentence talks about gender disparities in areas other than pay, so eliminate answer choices that aren’t consistent with that purpose. Choice (A) is about pay, so eliminate it. Choice (B) gives an example of a gender disparity in an area other than pay, so keep it. Choice (C) is about an area other than pay, but it talks about the removal of barriers to women’s ability to work, which is not a disparity. Eliminate (C). Choice (D) is about pay gaps, so eliminate (D). Choice (B) is most consistent with the purpose stated in the question, so it’s the correct answer.
Whether a purpose question asks about a main idea or about a detail, your approach should be the same: look for the answer that’s most consistent with the purpose stated in the question, and always use POE!
Sometimes, questions ask you whether information should be added to or deleted from a paragraph. When you run into one of these questions, ask yourself two questions: Is the information to be added or deleted consistent with the rest of the paragraph? And if it is consistent, does it make the paragraph more precise? If the answer to either question is no, it doesn’t belong. If the answer to both questions is yes, it should be included.
The question of unequal pay for women draws on many other broader social issues. The gender disparities persist in areas other than pay.
3. At this point, the writer is considering adding the following true statement:
The year that women’s suffrage became legal in the United States was also the year that the American Football League was formed under the leadership of Jim Thorpe.
Should the writer make this addition here?
A) Yes, because it gives a broader context to the achievement of women’s suffrage.
B) Yes, because it helps to ease some of the political rhetoric in the rest of the passage.
C) No, because it does not contribute in a significant way to the discussion of the gender pay gap.
D) No, because the question of gender pay is irrelevant when all football players are men.
Here’s How to Crack It
The first thing to ask yourself is whether the new sentence is relevant to the paragraph. In this case, the paragraph is about how gender disparities persist in areas other than pay. The new sentence is about the formation of the American Football League. It doesn’t say anything about gender disparities, so it shouldn’t be added—eliminate (A) and (B).
If you’re saying to yourself, “but wait—isn’t football a prime example of gender disparity?” take a deep breath. Read the sentence literally; there’s no interpreting required in SAT Writing and Language. Football could be an example of gender disparity, but since this sentence doesn’t say anything about it, it isn’t relevant here.
Now look more closely at the reasons given in (C) and (D). The best reasons on questions like this have to do with the ideas of consistency and precision. Choice (C) accurately describes the new sentence by saying, essentially, that it’s not relevant. Choice (D) could arguably be true, though football cheerleaders are a pretty compelling example of gender pay disparity…oh, but there we go interpreting! Stop! Thinking about an answer choice in that way isn’t helpful in Writing and Language. The real problem with (D) is that it doesn’t relate to the role the sentence would play in the paragraph, so eliminate it. The correct answer is (C).
If you run into a question that asks you whether to delete a sentence from a paragraph, approach it in exactly the same way we just did.
Another type of question you’re likely to see asks for the best placement of a sentence within a paragraph. Once again, consistency is the name of the game. The sentence in question needs to be consistent with the ideas in the sentences before and after it.
Take a look at an example.
[1] One need look no further than to the idea of the “traditional” family. [2] The shift, however, has yet to produce a substantive increase in how women, who are now nearly as likely to work as men, are paid. [3] In this idea, the father of the family earns the family wage while the mother tends to the children and the home. [4] With such an idea bolstering what many consider to be the goal inherent in the “American dream,” it is no wonder that women in the workplace should have a somewhat degraded position. [5] Shifting social and economic roles, however, have begun to change how people think about gender roles within the family.
4. To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 2 should be placed
A) where it is now.
B) before sentence 1.
C) after sentence 4.
D) after sentence 5.
Here’s How to Crack It
When you’re placing a sentence within a paragraph, look for words or phrases that can connect the sentence to other sentences. In this case, sentence 2 refers to the shift, which should logically follow after some explanation of a shift. That mention comes in sentence 5, which mentions shifting social and economic roles, so sentence 2 belongs after sentence 5. The correct answer is (D).
So far in all the examples we’ve looked at, the key guidelines have been consistency and precision. We haven’t mentioned grammar or concision at all in relation to questions. There is one type of question, however, that has to do with those concepts.
Take a look at this example.
The gender pay gap has no correlation to overall
salary. The gender pay gap appears in fields at both ends of the salary spectrum, from CEO to housekeeper.
5. Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion?
A) salary: this gap appears
B) salary; it appears
C) salary, appearing as it does
D) salary, although it appears
Here’s How to Crack It
The question asks how to most effectively combine the sentences. Think about the overall goal of combining sentences—it’s to make things shorter, so start by looking at the shortest answer. Double-check that the sentence is consistent and precise and that the punctuation is correct. If everything checks out, the shortest answer is the best option.
In this case, (B) is the shortest, the punctuation is correct, and the sentence is consistent and precise, so that’s the best answer.
Questions that ask you to combine sentences are almost always about concision, but occasionally an answer choice has incorrect punctuation, or something like (D) here, which has an opposite-direction transition when there’s no actual contrast in the sentence. So be sure to check the answers carefully—the shortest one may not always be right.
The short answer is nothing. But charts and graphs do appear in SAT Writing and Language, so be prepared! As with graphs in any section of the test, you’ll want to read the labels (title, axes, and key or legend) carefully, and then choose the answers that are most consistent with the data shown.
Take a look at an example.
Even as women’s roles in high-level positions, such as Congress, have increased almost five-fold since 1981,
the pay that women receive relative to men has increased by only approximately 33%.
6. Which of the following choices gives information consistent with the graph?
A) NO CHANGE
B) women’s wages have increased by over 80%.
C) the wages of women in Congress have decreased.
D) the efforts of women in Congress to raise wages have failed.
Here’s How to Crack It
The question asks you to find which choice agrees with the graph. It looks like “Women in Congress” goes up significantly where “Women’s Pay” remains relatively consistent. The only choice that reflects that trend is (A). Choice (B) misreads the graph, and (C) and (D) can’t be supported one way or the other. Choice (A) is therefore the correct answer.
In general, graphs on the SAT Reading and Writing and Language Tests are very straightforward, and the fundamental question they ask is, “Can you read a graph?” These are easy points as long as you read the graphs carefully and use POE.
As you have seen in this chapter, the SAT can ask a lot of different kinds of questions, but you’re not going to have anything really crazy thrown at you. The most important rules to remember are consistency and precision. If you choose answers that are precise and consistent with other information in the passage, you should be good to go.
Answers can be found on this page.
Time: 7–8 minutes
1. Which of the following choices would best introduce the main point of the essay?
A) NO CHANGE
B) While many movie genres are staples in Hollywood, the popularity of these genres has changed over time.
C) Everyone knows that the highest form of Hollywood film is the drama.
D) There’s a lot that you may not know about how films are made in Hollywood.
2. Which of the following gives information consistent with the graph?
A) NO CHANGE
B) has risen, with Vampire films increasing nearly six-fold.
C) has declined, with Zombie film production decreasing by a sixth.
D) has declined, with Vampire film production decreasing by a sixth.
While the saying goes that there’s “no accounting for the public’s taste,”
3. Which of the following choices would offer the most effective transition between the previous paragraph and the current one?
A) NO CHANGE
B) these trends nonetheless invite us to try.
C) a lot of people don’t even care about Zombie movies.
D) science has not yet shown that zombies exist.
Westerns dominated the 1920s. Zombie films have dominated the 1990s and 2000s.
Beginning with these facts alone, we can start to see why these films might have been popular in different eras. The 1920s, for instance, was an American moment of crusade.
4. The writer is considering deleting the underlined sentence. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?
A) Kept, because it provides a logical transition between ideas in the paragraph.
B) Kept, because it explains why Westerns are now less popular than Zombie films are.
C) Deleted, because it is not directly related to the paragraph’s focus on Zombie films.
D) Deleted, because it undermines the passage’s claim about the declining popularity of Westerns.
5. Which choice best supports the idea in the previous sentence?
A) NO CHANGE
B) The United States is still interested in crusades today, so it’s hard to see why they don’t make as many Westerns anymore.
C) Led by Woodrow Wilson’s plan for a U.S.-led League of Nations, the world, reeling from World War I, wanted justice among the outlaws.
D) The stock market wouldn’t crash for another nine years, at which point people would really freak out.
6. Which choice best maintains the style and tone of the passage?
A) NO CHANGE
B) integrity and harshness.
C) being lit and cruelty.
D) justice and brutality.
[1] The 1990s and 2000s, dominated as they are by Zombie films, show that contemporary conflicts are not so far away. [2] Instead, we are interested in and suspicious of the people around us. [3] Although we now have the world at the click of a button, Zombie films show that we are not all that interested in that world. [4] Whether coworkers or fellow students, the people around us, especially when viewed as a mass, can seem almost “dead.” [5] And the reasons for this are fairly obvious: our private or online personalities have become so robust that
we end up spending a lot of time designing avatars that match our personalities.
7. Which choice would most effectively conclude the sentence and the paragraph?
A) NO CHANGE
B) sometimes it’s hard to have face-to-face conversations with people.
C) many people now struggle with addictions to their internet devices.
D) the “real world” outside cannot help but seem dull by comparison.
8. To make this paragraph most logical, sentence 2 should be placed
A) where it is now.
B) before sentence 1.
C) before sentence 4.
D) before sentence 5.
It may seem that genre conventions never change. Because they never change, it probably seems like a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago. What the rise in Zombie films shows, however, is that the genres themselves change, and they provide different things to different eras.
This is not to say that one genre is better than the other—that it’s better, for instance, to watch a tough cowboy fight off a gang of cattle rustlers—but it is to say that these genres hold a lot more than their
bloodthirsty entertainment value.
9. Which choice most effectively combines the underlined sentences?
A) NO CHANGE
B) It may seem that genre conventions never change; because of it, it could be argued that a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago.
C) It may seem that genre conventions never change: a Western today follows the same set of rules as a Western from 100 years ago.
D) Because Westerns today follow the same set of rules as they did 100 years ago, it seems to most outside observers that genre conventions never change.
10. At this point, the author is considering adding the following true statement:
For what it’s worth, my personal favorite is Jacques Tourneur’s I Married a Zombie, which is based loosely on Jane Eyre.
Should the writer make this addition here?
A) Yes, because the essay as a whole is filled with these kinds of examples and personal preferences.
B) Yes, because the author’s quirky choice shows that he has an off-beat perspective.
C) No, because the author’s strange choice disqualifies him from discussing popular taste.
D) No, because the essay as a whole is not primarily focused on the author’s personal preferences.
11. Which choice most effectively suggests that Westerns offer more than what they seem superficially to represent?
A) NO CHANGE
B) mere
C) wholesome
D) engaging
1. B
The question asks which choice introduces the main point of the essay. Determine what the main point is before answering this question. The first paragraph introduces the idea of different genres of movies, and the rest of the essay focuses on the shifting popularity of Westerns and Zombie films. The idea of movie streaming has nothing to do with this, so eliminate (A). Choice (B) addresses how the popularity of some genres has changed over time, so keep it. Eliminate (C) because it addresses only one genre, drama. Eliminate (D) because how films are made is not consistent with the focus of the essay. The correct answer is (B).
2. A
Here you need to find the answer choice that is consistent with the graph. The graph shows how the numbers of vampire and zombie films have increased since 1950. Choices (C) and (D) are not consistent with this information; eliminate them. Zombie films have increased dramatically, from about 10 in 1960 to about 55 in 2000, while vampire movies went from about 15 to about 40. Because vampire movies did not increase nearly six-fold, eliminate (B). Choice (A) is the correct answer.
3. B
The question asks you to identify the correct transition between the paragraph about trends involving Western, zombie, and vampire movies and the current paragraph. Choice (A) does not address either paragraph, so eliminate (A). Choice (C) mentions zombie movies, but not in relation to the trends, so eliminate (C). Choice (D) mentions zombies but not in relation to movies; get rid of (D). Choice (B) mentions the trends and introduces a discussion and is therefore the correct answer.
4. A
The question asks whether a sentence should be deleted. If the sentence is consistent with the ideas in the paragraph, it should be kept. The paragraph starts by saying that Westerns dominated in the 1920s, and that Zombie films have dominated in the 1990s and 2000s. The paragraph later describes the 1920s; the underlined sentence gives a reason to look more closely at the 1920s: we can start to see why these films might have been popular in different eras. The sentence should be kept, so eliminate (C) and (D). Choice (A) accurately states that the sentence provides a logical transition, so keep it. The sentence doesn’t explain why Westerns are now less popular, so eliminate (B). The correct answer is (A).
5. C
Here you’re looking for the statement that supports the idea of an American crusade. Choice (A) contains an unrelated reference to the Catholic Church; eliminate (A). Choice (B) relates the information to today, which is not the time period in question, so eliminate (B). Choice (D) contains unrelated information about the stock market crash that happened years later, so eliminate (D). Choice (C) mentions the postwar crusade mentioned in the previous sentence and is the correct answer.
6. D
The question asks for the answer that best maintains the style and tone of the passage. The tone of the passage is formal, so eliminate any answer choices that are informal or slangy. Legit action and being lit are slangy, so eliminate (A) and (C). Compare (B) and (D): either integrity or justice could work, but brutality better matches the formal tone of the passage than harshness does. Eliminate (B). The correct answer is (D).
7. D
The question asks for the answer that would best conclude the sentence and the paragraph. The paragraph discusses our lack of interest in the world, and how the people around us…can seem almost “dead.” How much time people spend designing avatars is not consistent with these ideas, so eliminate (A). Although people in (B) is consistent with the paragraph, having face-to-face conversations is not, so eliminate (B). Addictions to internet devices is not consistent with the paragraph, so eliminate (C). The “real world” in (D) is consistent with the discussion of the world at the beginning of the paragraph, and the idea that it is dull corresponds to the idea of people seeming “dead,” so (D) is the best choice to conclude the paragraph.
8. C
The question asks for the best placement of sentence 2, so it tests consistency of ideas. The focus of sentence 2 should be consistent with the ideas that come before and after it. Sentence 2 starts with the contrasting transition Instead, and says that we are interested in and suspicious of the people around us. This sentence should come directly after something that contrasts with this idea. Sentence 3 says we are not all that interested in that world, which is in direct contrast to the idea in sentence 2. Therefore, sentence 2 should come after sentence 3 (or before sentence 4). The correct answer is (C).
9. B
The question asks for the best way to combine the sentences. Start by looking at the most concise choice, which in this case is (C). Choice (C) gives a precise meaning and the punctuation is correct, so keep it. Choice (A) changes the order of words in the sentence, which makes the meaning imprecise: eliminate (A). Choice (B) includes the phrase because of it that has a pronoun (it) that doesn’t clearly refer to anything; eliminate (B). Choice (D) adds the phrase most outside observers that doesn’t make the sentence more precise, so eliminate (D). The correct answer is (C).
10. D
The question asks whether a statement about the author’s personal favorite zombie movie should be included in the paragraph. The essay is about the overall trends and changes regarding movie genres, not someone’s personal preferences. Because it is not consistent with the topic of the passage, do not add the sentence. Eliminate (A) and (B). The reason for not adding the sentence is not related to the choice of movie but rather to the unrelated focus on personal preference. The correct answer is (D).
11. B
The question asks which choice makes it clear that Westerns offer more than what they seem superficially to represent, so look for the word that best fits that purpose. Since the phrase more than appears before the underlined portion, look for an answer that means superficial. Bloodthirsty could be superficial, depending on interpretation, which doesn’t make it a good choice on the SAT. Eliminate (A). Mere suggests that the entertainment is superficial, so keep (B). Both wholesome and engaging would suggest that the entertainment offers something more than entertainment, which doesn’t match superficial. Eliminate (C) and (D). The correct answer is (B).
The most important thing to remember about Writing and Language questions is that you must notice those questions and then answer those questions. Don’t miss out on some of the easiest points on the whole test by not reading carefully enough.
Always choose the answer that is most consistent with the task in the question and with the passage.
When answering questions, keep this general rule in mind: Writing and Language passages should be judged on what they do say, not on what they could say. When dealing with style, tone, and focus, work with the words and phrases the passage has already used.
There will be charts or graphs on the Writing and Language Test, but don’t let that throw you off. Just read the graphs with as much precision as you would a passage and choose the most precise answers possible.
