Writing section of the SAT
The new writing section of the SAT is broken roughly into two sections. One section requires a student to write a prototypical five paragraph essay in which there is a clear thesis that is expounded upon in a concise and cogent manner in the body of the essay. The other section tests a student’s ability to identify very basic grammatical and diction errors within the context of a sentence, to use multiple choice answers to edit a sentence, and to improve paragraphs based on some standard conventions of essay writing. Preparation for the essay section begins by using past essay prompts to get students in the swing of writing a timed essay. These essays are then analyzed, and re-worked to meet the standards of the ETS graders. Similarly, past multiple choice sections of this test released by ETS are used to hone a finite number of grammatical, idiomatic, and syntactic elements of standard writing that this exam taps.