World of English

SAT success

I just had a conversation with a 7th grader who recently received his SAT scores.  He performed outstandingly well after having a four months of one-on-one tutoring in preparation for the SAT with TutorVista.com.  It is always great to hear these encouraging success stories, and when I think about the fact that he still has four more years, at least, to continue learning and before taking the SAT he'll submit to universities, I know that a lot of doors will be open for him!  I just wanted to share his success!

How Your SAT Essay is Scored and What the Scores Mean

Use this audio presentation to learn how your SAT essay is actually scored, get some tips on maximizing that score, and understand what the SAT essay scores mean.

How Your SAT Essay is Scored and What the Scores Mean

Formula for a Good SAT Essay Score (Part III of III)

Proving Your Thesis—Think about those supporting points of your thesis very carefully—you want them to fully support your thesis. If the reader feels that your essay has gone off-topic, not addressed the prompt question directly, or did not accomplish what you set off to accomplish in your introduction, it will hurt your essay right at the end, where it could hurt since it will be a final impression.

Conclusion—WATCH THE TIME!! Make sure you finish your essay with a concluding paragraph. This shouldn't be a summary, but more of just a restatement of the thesis, a closing thought or a quick explanation of how the thesis has been proven. Do not being your conclusion with, “In conclusion,” and do NOT introduce any new ideas in the conclusion.

Good Grammar—All your sentences should be grammatically correct. You should know how to use commas, semicolons, periods, quotations, and all the parts of speech correctly and in the proper tenses.

Appropriate Vocabulary—Using big words is okay, but don't overdo it—try to use which ever word is most appropriate in the particular instant. Othertimes, use what sounds best--”swift” and “quick” might have similar meanings, but one might just sound better in the sentence. You certainly don't want to misuse a world only. Oh yeah—spell those words correctly. If you can't remember the proper spelling of a word, try another that you do know if possible. Spelling mistakes won't count against you much, but if they interfere with comprehension on the readers' part, then it will be a real problem.

Formula for a Good SAT Essay Score (Part II of III)

Hook Line—Get your readers' attention, fast! Here is where your reader forms their first perceptions about you, so try to use a hook line that is interesting and displays originality and thought. Keep it very short, though, because you will want to quickly move into your essay.

Thesis—Make sure the thesis of your short essay appears in the first paragraph of your essay, preferably the first two or three sentences. This let's your reader know immediately what you will be discussing and mentally prepares them for the rest of the essay.

Clear Transitions—Make sure that between your introductory paragraph and the body of your essay there are clear and smooth transitions, as well as between the other paragraphs. You want your essay to “flow” smoothly from one point into the other.

Clear topic sentences—Clear topic sentences for each paragraph in your body is an important aspect of essay writing. It provides guidance to the reader through organizing and stating the information of your essay. It is also important that, when taken together, the topic sentences of your paragraphs contribute to proving your thesis.

Good Supporting Evidence—Be sure that all evidence or examples are directly related to your topic sentences and therefore your thesis. Do not use convoluted examples to try to make your essay seem more intellectual—it will not. Use appropriate examples, pulling from what you know and your own experiences. Try to introduce evidence in three steps—introduce the evidence, provide the evidence, and then explain how the evidence supports the topic sentence. Look at the example below. The topic sentence is italicized and evidence is underlined.

Poverty has been a problem throughout man's existence. In the early history, there are many accounts of poverty. Tiberius Graccus, who lived until 133 BCE, was elected for promising to help end the impoverishment of the plebeians. After his election, he was killed by nobles, angry at his reforms. Even at that time, poverty divided society . . . .

The paragraph might continue to offer supporting evidence demonstrating poverty has been a problem that has existed throughout time. But notice how smooth the transitions between evidence would be and how well the topic sentence is being supported.

Formula for a Good SAT Essay Score (Part I of III)

I think it is important to remember that making a six on the SAT writing section is your responsibility, and it has to be, because you are writing it. You can easily learn to score fives on the SAT essay consistently, just as easily as the readers who score your essay were taught to recognize a five level essay when they read one. To put it over the top and score that six, you have to be insightful in your examples and concise in your language. Therefore, mastering a formula for an essay, an essay format, and learning to use it effectively to communicate your ideas can get you only so far—a five. It will always be your job, however, to think of those points and that supporting evidence that will get you a six. While grammar is not as important in this section, it could make the impact of a point on your essay. Most important, however, is the development of strong reasoning skills and learning to use your examples to illustrate your points effectively most effectively. An essay formula or format can be a helpful tool in thinking about issues and thinking examples, giving you what you need to succeed.

I'll outline the basic elements in the next few entries. Please feel free to share about any strategies that you know are effective.

Some Tips for a Good SAT Essay Score

There are several strategies to improve your SAT essay scores. Unfortunately, most of them aren't just a quick one sentence tip that will suddenly allow you to break through your threes into the upper echelons of the regular level six writers. Therefore, I suggest two elements that a good SAT essay should have. You can work on developing your writing skills by practicing essays and trying to incorporate these elements into it. I suggest you work with a teacher or tutor and have them review your essays and provide critical feedback and individualized strategies to help your writing where it needs it most. You can improve writing on your own, but if you are working with a teacher, tutor, or writing consultant, you are likely to have better results than by practicing alone.

1. ORGANIZATION—I normally try to ensure all of my students master the five paragraph essay format as they prepare for the SAT essay section. While it is not necessary to use this particular format for the SAT essay, it is effective. I use it, however, to ensure that the student can organize their essay and information in a readable, clear format. I make sure the student knows how to write a strong thesis and introductory paragraph, develop main supporting points, and compose a good conclusion. Another important part of organization, which I cannot emphasize enough, is the use of appropriate topic sentences. All the topic sentences should directly relate to your thesis and, of course, support it.  By making your topic sentences relate to your paragraph, and then making sure your supporting sentences relate to your topic sentence, you can ensure that every sentence relates to and supports your thesis statement.

2. GOOD SUPPORTING EVIDENCE—The way you use evidence an examples to support your points is where you can make the difference in a five rated essay and a six rated essays. Try to use original examples which clearly and unambiguously support your point. Often, the difference in a five and six essay is in the “cleverness” of the examples. Do they illustrate a unique point, supporting your thesis? Therefore, I try to ensure that a student understands what good supporting evidence is, knows how to introduce it, use it, and then analysis it or relate it to the point it supports. To do this, I often use either Aristotelian logic or the Toulmin model to demonstrate what an effective argument is and how to effectively support a claim. Good supporting evidence can be examples from literature, history, science, or from your own experience.

We will look at some of the big issues, like organization and supporting evidence, in more detail later.  I will be posting on some more elements of a good SAT essay, as well as some approaches to answering the essay questions in the next couple of days.

English Grammar: Pronouns and Antecedents for Effective Communication

When using "I," "I" refers to the speaker or the author. Therefore, we do not always find an antecedent before “I,” because you can assume it is the speaker/author.  This is similar to Japanese, which after stating a subject does not require repetition of the subject before each predicate, which can form a independent clause without stating the implied subject.  You can almost always imply who "I" refers to by assuming it is the author or the speaker, and can determine the speaker by analyzing the dialog, if between two or more speakers.  In that case, I should have an antecedent, also.

With more ambiguous pronouns like “we,” you should first supply the antecedent—the noun the pronoun is standing for in the sentence. An antecedent should always proceed each pronoun except the pronoun “I.” The reader has to know who “we” is referring to--”you and them” or “you and me,” and who is the “them” if you are referring to yourself and other people. After you have made it clear to the reader who or what the pronoun stands for, you could continue to use “we” to stand for “our organization,” assuming it is made up of people!

A great site for English usage

This is a very good and very extensive site covering English usage and common errors.  I will discuss some of these errors in detail in later postings, but this Web site is a handy reference.  Because it is so overwhelming, it does not make a good study tool.  Some of the explanations are not the clearest, but it makes an excellent "reference tool" to turn to when you have a specific question concerning the usage of an English word.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html

Misplaced Modifiers

A modifier that is placed too far away from the word it modifies or describes is called a misplaced modifier. Place your modifiers as close as possible to the word or words they describe in order to ensure clarity and avoid misplaced modifiers. When you are looking at a sentence, take these three simple steps to identify any modifier errors.

STEP 1: Find the modifier.

STEP 2: Identify what word the modifier was intended to modify.

STEP 3: Place the modifier as close as possible to the word, phrase, or clause it is supposed to describe.

Misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers are common errors on the ACT and SAT English sections, and if you are having problems finding an error in a sentence, look for any misplaced modifiers before marking “No Error.”

The need for diagnostics in test preparation

A good SAT or ACT program, or any standardized test preparation program, should begin with a diagnostic. This will allow you to focus your time on the subjects that you need in the particular areas where you might have weaknesses. Within that program, you additionally should get help on simple test taking strategies, an orientation of the test, and a few full length practice tests. These measures will help you by not only orienting you to the test and give you the general hints to go on, but it will also improve any deficiency that you may have had.  If you are working with a tutor, ask them to use this model to make the best use of your time.  If you are studying on your own, use this pattern to structure your preparation to make it pay off.