SAT Essay Lesson 1

SAT Essay Review

To help understand the set up and content of the SAT Literary Analysis

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

Basic Facts

• Test Date with Essay for all Michigan schools---April 12, 2023

• 50 minutes to read a passage and write your essay

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

Basic Facts

• The prompt won’t ask you to take a stance on an issue.

• Your task will be to analyze an argument presented in a passage in order to explain how the author builds the argument to persuade his or her audience.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

How your essay will be scored.

​Reading: How well you demonstrated your understanding of the passage.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

How your essay will be scored.

Analysis: How well you analyzed the passage and carried out the task of explaining how the author of builds his or her argument to persuade an audience.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

How your essay will be scored.

​

Writing:

How skillfully you crafted your response

Match

Match the following

• Reading

• Analyze

• Writing

How well you demonstrated your understanding of the passage.

explaining how the author of builds his or her argument to persuade an audience.

how skillfully you crafted your response.

• How well you demonstrated your understanding of the passage.

• explaining how the author of builds his or her argument to persuade an audience.

• how skillfully you crafted your response.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

Main Purpose of your essay

​

To identify and analyze the tactics that the author uses to build the argument.

Multiple Choice

The most important aspect is that the purpose of your essay is to

• Argue with the author of the article

• Persuade the author that his/her argument is incorrect.

• Persuade the reader that your opinion is correct.

• Identify and analyze the tactics that the author uses to build the argument.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

Remember:

​Main Purpose of your essay

To identify and analyze the tactics that the author uses to build the argument.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

​In what ways do writers (or speakers) try to convince their readers (or audiences)?

• facts

• evidence

• logical reasoning

• but also how language, specifically diction and syntax, can be used.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

​The prompt will ask students to consider the following elements:

a. Evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.

b. Reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.

c. Stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion, to add power to the ideas expressed.

Multiple Choice

When wrting your essay you are to take a stand on the issue.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

One way to analyze an article is to

• analyze the sentence strucutre of the essay.

• analyze the evidence such as facts and examples

• analyze how long the essay is

Multiple Choice

Another way to analyze an article is to

• Being able to connect the claims to the evidence with ideas of reasoning.

• Being able to analyze the structure of the writing prompt.

• Stylistic or persuasive elements, such as word choice or appeals to emotion.

Multiple Choice

Another way to analyze an article is to

• Being able to connect the claims to the evidence with ideas of reasoning.

• Being able to connect how the author wrote the essay.

• Being able to analyze the structure of the writing prompt.

What to know before writing your SAT Essay

Your SAT essay will be 5 paragraphs.

Paragraph 1: Introduction with a thesis statement

Paragraph 2-4: Body paragraph

Paragraph 5: Conclusion which includes restating your thesis