10 Steps for Writing a Great SAT Essay

Since 2005 the SAT test has included an essay component to judge how well a student can develop and express ideas in writing.  According to CollegeBoard, the company that administers the test, each essay is scored by two “experienced and trained high school or college teachers” who won't know each other's score. They also won't know the student's identity or school. Each reader gives the essay a score from 1 to 6 (6 is the highest score) based on the SAT essay scoring guide.

Sounds kind of intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be if you approach the eating of this elephant in single bites. 

Here’s some suggestions to help:

1.            Have a strong point of view.  One of the three things the SAT essay wants to measure is your “ability to develop a point of view on an issue presented.” 

This means that even if the question posed is dull, your reaction to it cannot be.  You simply must take a side on whatever issue is presented.  If the question is, “Which is better, rocks or bricks,” and you’re thinking, “Argh, I don’t care.”  Change it around in your mind to “Your dog is ugly and lame, and mine rules.  True or false.”  Find a way to make it matter to you, if only for the 25 minutes allowed on the essay, because everything else flows from your opinion, and how you get it down on paper.

2.            Make sure you’re answering the question.  Since an off-topic essay will receive a score of zero, you’d be better off sleeping through this section of the test than trying to push the subject in another direction.  So, before you start writing, come up with two excellent reasons why you are correct and jot them down.  Then, as you write, stay focused, and ask yourself with every sentence, “Is this helping to develop my argument, and am I answering the question posed?” 

3.            Use a “Beginning, Middle, and End” Structure.  You have a strong opinion about the question asked, and a commitment to staying on point, but the blank page looks pretty scary.  Well, it doesn’t need to be if you look at it like four boxes (or paragraphs) to fill in.  The way you approach filling these boxes is illustrated nicely by an old rule of thumb for speech writing.  It goes, “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em.  Tell ‘em.  Then tell ‘em what you’ve told ‘em.” 

In a four paragraph SAT essay, “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em,” is your first box (often called the introduction).  Here you introduce your opinion and the two excellent ideas you've jotted down to support it.  Begin this paragraph with a strong declarative sentence that states your case in a simple, direct way.  Something like, "My dog is extremely attractive," will do.  Then take your two excellent reasons and lay them out in order (one sentence each).  You can stop there, and simply be done with the paragraph, or close with an acknowledgment of the opposition.  For example, "Some may believe otherwise, but I disagree because..." can be a good transition to the next box.  


Now it's time for more detail.  The next two paragraphs are where you develop your ideas.

Paragraphs two and three are the body of your essay, or the “Tell ‘em” part.  Here you take your two excellent reasons and elaborate for one paragraph each (more on this later).

In the final paragraph, also called the conclusion, you just tell ‘em what you’ve told ‘em.  A quick review of the argument you’ve made, and perhaps a final statement of your overriding opinion on the matter (a la, “Therefore, I believe the evidence shows that my dog is beautiful and totally unlame.), and you’re done.

 4.            Be aware of the clock.  You have 25 minutes to finish.  That’s plenty if you relax and get right to work.  Read the entire prompt.  Don’t rush through.  The time you take to digest the question and the author’s argument will be well spent.  When you’re done reading, look the author square in the eye and take a side.  You can agree or disagree, it’s up to you.  Then jot down those two great reasons why you are correct, and start filling in your four boxes.  We all have a tendency to daydream, and that’s fine.  We can get right back to that in just twenty-five minutes, after we’ve written a stellar SAT essay!

5.            Use specific examples from your reading, studies, experience, and observation.  That sentence is straight from CollegeBoard’s own grading criteria, and it is good advice for writing any essay.  What it means is back up your opinion with evidence.  If you start paragraph two by saying, “My dog's beauty is obvious to all who gaze upon her,” include clear reasons why.  Is her coat shiny, are her teeth white, is her bone structure symmetrical, does she have a fabulous smile?  Put it in there, in the correct the box (or paragraph).  But don’t overdo it, because an essay with one or two thoughtful, well-developed ideas is more likely to get a high score than one with a multitude of unrelated scraps of proof.

 6.            Develop your ideas logically.  All this means is, make sure A leads to B and then to C.  For instance, if I charged into your house and yelled, “A giant marshmallow just landed on the mall," and then said, “Man, baseball is fun,” you would probably feel a disconnect in my thinking.  This is because there is nothing connecting these two ideas. 

Ideas should flow from one to the other with bridges in between.  If I put “I used to eat marshmallows at the ballgame when I was kid,” in between the two exclamations above, they would flow better (though still not great) because there would be a bridge between them which has something to do with each.  A, B, C.  Beginning, Middle, End.  Follow this order when you’re developing your ideas and your reader (and grader) will be glad you did.

7.            No treading water!   Many academic essay writers hold an irrational belief that they can simply say the same thing over and over, in a slightly different way, and somehow fool their graders.  You can’t!  So don’t even try.  This ruse won’t work and it will, ironically, take at least as much time as saying something new with each sentence.  Think how bored you would get if your friend cornered you for 25 minutes and said the same thing over and over.  It’s the same thing in writing.  The SAT essay wants to see if you can develop a thought, and the only way to do that is to move on from where you started.  And if you don’t, you’re just running in place (or treading water).

 8.            In movies and essays, beginnings and endings matter most.  Screenwriters know that audiences need a reason to care about their story as soon as it starts, so they often begin their movies with a bang, literally.  This grabs the viewer's attention and instills a desire to keep watching. 

Remember the last film you saw that began with small talk and wandering aimlessly around?  In these poorly written movies, you get fidgety and wonder what the point is.  It’s the same in essay writing.  You need to start strong to grab your reader’s attention, and the way you do this is by stating your case clearly in the opening sentence of the essay, and at the beginning of each paragraph.  This will make people want to pay attention to you, and pull them forward in the reading.

And by the same token, you need to finish strong.  “Star Wars” is a great movie.  Cool opening, great character development, fun battles.  But if Darth Vader decided an hour in that he no longer wanted to be a villain, and instead called a truce with Luke and opened a hot dog stand, you wouldn’t like “Star Wars” because that ending stinks.

Remember this in the closing sentences of your essay and paragraphs.  Make excellent, on-point statements to introduce and conclude your ideas and your writing will sing.

9.            Review and Revise  -  So much of writing is in the rewriting, and no one ever writes a perfect first draft of anything.  For this reason, use any leftover time to review what you’ve written for mistakes.  Clean up anything that jumps out, but resist the temptation to throw away huge chunks of text because the time limit simply does not allow for that. 

10.            How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice.  The  CollegeBoard's website has excellent advice and practice questions.  You can review essays of every grading point (1 through 6), and practice answering sample questions from actual tests.  You should do this with a paper and pencil (required equipment on the SAT) because working on a computer makes revision easier, and just feels different than writing longhand. 

The multiple choice questions will help you to spot trouble in tenses and other frequently made errors.  It’s also a good idea to review this stuff with someone who can give you an informed and honest answer about your progress.  A big chunk of your grade on the SAT essay will include not just the stuff we discussed above, but also whether you can follow the conventions of standard written English.  Reviewing this material will help you get comfortable and confident long before the 25 minute clock starts ticking.

Of course, if you need assistance in your preparation for the SAT essay, you can always contact CaliforniaWritingCoach.com.  We will be happy to help.


*  Next week:  More on How to Write a Story

How to Write a Story, Part 4: Hurting Your Hero's Feelings

Okay, remember when we learned that all stories are about a character with a problem and how they solve that problem (or get beaten by it)?  Well that's still true.  But there's something else too.  The problems we discussed the other day are external problems.  That is, problems that occur outside of your hero's body.  A monster chases her.  A tidal wave closes in.  Bad guys storm the building where her husband works, or a dog can't remember where he hid his bone.  All of this stuff is external, meaning, it can't just be thought through.  Your hero has to interact with the outside world in order to find a solution.

Clear so far?  Excellent.

These external struggles are your plot problems.  You find one big one, like needing to escape from an island of man-eating dinosaurs (as in "Jurassic Park"), and from that you build your plot.

The other kind of problem that heroes' have is an internal problem.  That is, how they feel about the situation they find themselves in.  Or, how they feel about the plot problem. 

Bad action movies are wonderful examples of this because they're usually written by macho guys who can only portray emotion in the most obvious ways.  The heroes in these stories have usually been scarred by some similar situation, like, "I can't go into that building to rescue the hostages, because last time I did I got a dozen innocent people (including my partner) killed!"  The time between that episode and the one currently facing him will have been a period of intense doubt (and likely problem drinking).  They will have become bitter, and almost definitely will be refusing the call to action this time around.

All of this stuff is mental, or internal.  If the hero in this action movie just charged in without fear or consideration of what it all may mean, we, the audience, probably wouldn't register the problem as being particularly large (to him).  And the movie would be less interesting.  But if our hero is frightened and doubting himself, then the problem seems so much bigger, and the question isn't just will he save the hostages, it's will he stand up to his own misgivings and insecurities and find what he needs within to complete the mission.  Or, essentially, can this journey make him whole again?

Always remember that we build stories in an opposite way from how we handle difficulty in our real lives.  In this world we want to solve our problems fast.  In story telling we want to make those problems bigger and bigger and bigger before we solve them.  Giving your character an internal problem will help you do this while making your hero seem more like a real person, which allows your audience to sink deeper into the story.

So... pay attention while you're reading your favorite books or watching your favorite movies and television shows.  See how fast you can recognize the outside problem (the one that drives the plot) and the inside problem (the one that informs the character).  I'll bet that the sooner you have these answers (and hopefully believe them), the sooner you'll be enjoying the story.

Now go find your writing chair!