New SAT writing workbook

CONTENTS
Introduction: About the Writing Section on the New SAT I
Using Peterson’s New SAT Writing Workbook to Improve
Your Score 1
A Word about the Future 2
PART I Practicing Your Essay Writing Skills
Chapter 1: About the Essay on the SAT I 4
What the Essay Assesses 4
Essay Topics 5
The Length of the Essay 5
Scoring the Essay 6
The Scoring Rubric 6
Planning Your Time 9
Check Your Writing Skills 11
Writing as the Only Preparation 11
Practical Advice 12
Check Off 12
Chapter 2: Dissecting the Writing Prompt 13
The Directions 13
The Writing Prompt 14
The Assignment 14
Check Your Writing Skills 16
Analyzing More Prompts 17
Check Your Writing Skills 18
Practical Advice 23
Check Off 23
Answers and Explanations 23
Chapter 3: About Writing the Essay 27
The Essay: A Review 27
The Writing Process 29
Writing an “Excellent” Essay 34
The SAT I Essay 39
Using the Rubric to Improve Your Writing 41
Practical Advice 42
Check Off 43
Chapter 4: Writing Practice Essays 44
Pacing Guide for Writing the Essay 44
Using the Practice Essays 44
Practice Essay 1 45
Practice Essay 2 52
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Practice Essay 3 59
Practice Essay 4 66
Practice Essay 5 73
Chapter 5: The Top 10 Rules of Effective Writing 80
Using the Practice Items 81
Rule 1: Use Action Verbs and the Active Voice 81
Check Your Writing Skills 82
Rule 2: Use Precise Words 83
Check Your Writing Skills 85
Rule 3: Say What You Mean 86
Check Your Writing Skills 88
Rule 4: Maintain Your Tone 89
Check Your Writing Skills 90
Rule 5: Use Direct Language 91
Check Your Writing Skills 92
Rule 6: Use Concise Language 93
Check Your Writing Skills 95
Rule 7: Improve Sentences 97
Check Your Writing Skills 98
Rule 8: Develop Sentence Variety 100
Check Your Writing Skills 101
Rule 9: Use Standard Rules of English for Capitalization . . 103
Rule 10: Use Standard Rules of English for Punctuation . . 104
Check Your Writing Skills 107
Answers and Explanations 109
Check Your Writing Skills 113
Answers and Explanations 125
More Practice 128
Check Off 131
PART II Practicing Standard English for Writing
Chapter 6: About the Multiple-Choice Section 134
Basic Information about the Multiple-Choice Section 135
General Test-Taking Strategies for the Multiple-Choice
Questions 135
Educated Guessing 136
Planning Your Time 137
Using the Practice Items 138
Analyzing the Question Types 139
Check Your Writing Skills 142
Check Your Writing Skills 145
Check Your Writing Skills 152
Answers and Explanations 152
More Practice 156
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Answers and Explanations 160
Check Off 163
Chapter 7: About Identifying Sentence Errors 164
What Is Standard English? 164
Using the Practice Items 164
Verbs 165
Check Your Writing Skills 172
Pronouns 174
Check Your Writing Skills 176
Modifiers and Comparisons 177
Check Your Writing Skills 179
Idioms 180
Check Your Writing Skills 181
Contractions and Possessives 182
Check Your Writing Skills 183
Usage Problems 184
Check Your Writing Skills 195
Answers and Explanations 196
More Practice 199
Check Off 202
Chapter 8: About Improving Sentences 203
Using the Practice Items 203
Revising Incomplete and Run-On Sentences 204
Check Your Writing Skills 207
Revising Ambiguous and Confusing Sentences 209
Check Your Writing Skills 214
Answers and Explanations 218
More Practice 222
Check Off 225
Chapter 9: About Improving Paragraphs 226
Using the Practice Essays 226
The Anatomy of an Essay 226
Paragraphs and Essays 231
Check Your Writing Skills 240
Answers and Explanations 243
Check Your Writing Skills 245
Answers and Explanations: 247
More Practice 248
Check Off 252
Part III Putting It All Together
Practice Exercise Set 1 255
Practical Advice 256
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Writing the Essay 256
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 1 257
Identifying Sentence Errors 259
Improving Sentences 262
Improving Paragraphs 267
Practice Exercise Set 1: Answers and Explanations 273
Self-Evaluation Rubric 274
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 276
Answers and Explanations 277
Practice Exercise Set 2 287
Practical Advice 288
Writing the Essay 288
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 2 289
Identifying Sentence Errors 291
Improving Sentences 294
Improving Paragraphs 299
Practice Exercise Set 2: Answers and Explanations 305
Self-Evaluation Rubric 306
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 308
Answers and Explanations 309
Practice Exercise Set 3 317
Practical Advice 318
Writing the Essay 318
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 3 319
Identifying Sentence Errors 321
Improving Sentences 323
Improving Paragraphs 327
Practice Exercise Set 3: Answers and Explanations 331
Self-Evaluation Rubric 332
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 334
Answers and Explanations 335
Practice Exercise Set 4 343
Practical Advice 344
Writing the Essay 344
Answer Sheet: Practice Exercise Set 4 345
Identifying Sentence Errors 347
Improving Sentences 350
Improving Paragraphs 355
Practice Exercise Set 4: Answers and Explanations 359
Self-Evaluation Rubric 360
Multiple-Choice Self-Evaluation 362
Answers and Explanations 363
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Quick Reference Guide 372
Pacing Guide for Writing the Essay 372
Top 10 Rules of Effective Writing 372
Strategies for Answering Multiple-Choice Questions 373
CONTENTS
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Introduction
ABOUT THE WRITING SECTION ON THE
NEW SAT I
Beginning with the Spring 2005 administration of the SAT I, the
College Board added a Writing section to the test. Along with
changes to the Math section, the new Writing section is expected to
provide a better assessment of how prepared students are for college.
The basic facts about the new Writing section are the following:
The Writing section will consist of two parts:
• One student-produced essay
• Multiple-choice questions on grammar, usage, and word choice
The Writing section will be 50 minutes in length:
• 20 minutes for the essay
• 30 minutes for the multiple-choice questions
The scoring will be the same as the old SAT I and SAT II Writing
Subject Test:
• 200 to 800 scale
• 1 to 6 scale for the essay
• Use of a holistic approach to scoring the essay
The essay prompt will require you to
• Write a persuasive essay
The multiple-choice questions will ask you to
• Identify sentence errors
• Improve sentences
• Improve paragraphs
USING PETERSON’S NEW SAT WRITING WORKBOOK
TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE
Peterson’s New SAT Writing Workbook has been designed to give
you concentrated practice in the skills you will need for both the
essay and the multiple-choice questions on the Writing section of the
SAT I. Employ the following steps to get the most from using this
book:
1
• Apply the test-taking strategies as you practice writing the timed
essays and answering the multiple-choice questions.
• Evaluate your essays against the rubric that is given. It is similar to
the one used for the actual test.
• Compare your multiple-choice responses with the Answer and
Explanations that follow the questions.
• Read all the answer explanations, even for questions you answered
correctly. You will be reinforcing and extending what you know—
and maybe learning something new.
• Use your practice sessions to pinpoint those areas that you need to
spend more time reviewing.
• Make a list of weak areas for review. Check them off as you
become more confident about each one.
If you take the time to read each chapter and complete each exer-
cise, including the simulated writing sections, you will increase your
test-taking skills and gain confidence for the real SAT I.
PETERSON’S SAT ESSAYEDGE
Peterson’s SAT EssayEdge service will offer an edit and critique of
your practice SAT essays. EssayEdge will tell you what score your
essays would have received, as well as give you a critique that
explains additional concepts and strategies needed to improve your
score on test day. This service is available at www.petersons.com/
satessayedge.
A WORD ABOUT THE FUTURE
The writing process, effective writing guidelines, and standard English
conventions that you are learning in Peterson’s New SAT Writing
Workbook apply to whatever you write, whenever you write. The
words whatever and whenever are important to remember. Using
this book to improve your writing for the SAT I is one reason to buy
it. It is equally important to use the writing process, strategies, and
standard English discussed in this book FOREVER. You will be
required to write once you are in college, and most likely, you will
be required to write in your workplace. The goal of this book is to
help you develop and practice your skills in writing clearly expressed,
coherent, and well-developed prose. Practice for the SAT I by using
the writing strategies and practice exercises in this book and you will
be on your way to turning these strategies into life-long habits.
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Part I
Practicing Your Essay
Writing Skills
In Chapters 1 through 5, you will find
• Basic information about the writing section on the SAT I
• An explanation of the scoring rubric
• Strategies for understanding writing prompts with exercises
for practice
• A review of the writing process
• Strategies for planning and writing the essay
• A sample writing guide to help you pace your writing
• Timed essays for practice
• 10 rules for effective writing, followed by exercises
Chapter 1
ABOUT THE ESSAY ON THE SAT I
Your goals for this chapter are to learn the
• Basic information about the Writing section on the SAT I
• Elements of the scoring rubric
The Writing section of the SAT I assesses
• How clearly you can express your ideas when writing “on demand”
• How well you know and can apply the rules of standard written
English
“On demand,” according to the College Board, is the kind of writing
you will do in college on tests and in the workplace in memos, email
messages, or letters—short pieces of writing done quickly.
The term standard written English refers to the rules of
grammar, mechanics, and usage that you find in any English grammar
textbook. On the SAT I, you will show your skills with the conven-
tions of standard English by
• Writing your essay
• Recognizing and correcting errors
• Demonstrating an awareness of language through the revision of
others’ writing
The focus in Chapters 1 through 4 is on getting your ideas down on
paper. Chapter 5 reviews some basic grammar, mechanics, and usage
issues that can affect your writing. You will be reviewing and
practicing the skills and test-taking tips for identifying errors and
improving sentences and paragraphs in Chapters 6 through 9.
WHAT THE ESSAY ASSESSES
The essay question is included on the SAT I for an obvious rea-
son—to test your writing skills. To do well, you need to
• Explain your thinking about the topic
• Support your thinking with facts, examples, and ideas
• Organize your writing in a logical, effective manner
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