<p>On my last 2 SAT tests I received scores or 10. Normally I would use the same 2 examples,The Barron in the Trees and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s challenges, fitting the stories into the topic.</p>
<p>After reading this post by a New York Test Prep Examiner: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Length: A long essay is, by definition, a good essay. Length is, in fact, the single most important quality of a high scoring essay! Did you know that the SAT test booklet now includes 5 pages for your essay? Be prepared to write at least a page and a half, and don’t expect a score over 8 if you don’t produce two full pages.</p></li>
<li><p>Organization: Organization is critical. Classic, boring four paragraph organization is fine, though:</p></li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li><p>Introduction (state your thesis or side in the issue, name your two examples, and segue into Body Paragraph 1)</p></li>
<li><p>Body Paragraph 1 (state how your first – and stronger – example supports your point, show don’t tell with strong details that all support your point, conclude)</p></li>
<li><p>Body Paragraph 2 (segue from first example, then do same routine for the second one)</p></li>
<li><p>Conclusion (which can be short, but must be there)</p></li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li><p>Strong examples: Bone up on a few strong examples from history and/or literature and a couple from current events or personal experience. Any example can be successful, but strong classics (Shakespeare, the Greeks, Nobel Prize-winning literature) are generally richer in the universal human issues that the SAT writers like to ask about. Memorize key facts, dates, authors, cool quotes and whatever else might help insure that you “show, don’t tell.”</p></li>
<li><p>Emphasis: Bang your point home! Make sure every detail supports your original thesis and remind your reader of that fact in the beginning and end of each paragraph. Frankly, it’s not bad to be a raving ideologue – as long as you steer away from controversy. Avoid hot button subjects or anything that the stranger reading your essay could possibly take offense to. Think Miss America speech, not Presidential primary debate.</p></li>
<li><p>Spice: The highest scoring essays embody all the above qualities but also have the extra flourishes that distinguish better writing from the mundane. Remember, your reader is being paid a little over minimum wage to read hundreds and hundreds of essays in a very short time, essays that sound remarkably the same. It is a somniferous task, and only a real standout essay is going to wake the reader up to take notice. So pepper your essay with big words, mature vocabulary – especially in the beginning to catch the reader’s attention! Why describe the setting sun as a red ball when you can call it a “crimson orb”? Liberally sprinkle sophisticated use of punctuation: colon, semi-colons, parenthetical inserts. Create rhythm and emphasis by using short versus long sentence lengths. Vary your sentence structure, employing subject-predicate inversion where helpful. (“Standing in the dark shadow was a man” sounds much more ominous than the standard subject-verb exposition.). Get crazy with literary devices: metaphors, similes, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, regular questions (“Is it true that we are sometimes our own worst enemies? How could this be so?”), even alliteration!</p></li>
<li><p>Practice: Finally, practice, practice, practice! Write lots of essays, get feedback from a teacher or tutor, and you’ll be well on your way to a terrific start to your SAT morning!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I come to realize that piquant, outstanding, essays are what graders look for. </p>
<p>Besides logically concrete development of thought, which I think all essays that score a 10 have, an essay needs outstanding rhetoric:</p>
<p>Inverted syntax: Shaking his head in a despondent room full of weary men, hurt women, and one loyally patriotic sage, Robert E. Lee told his wife Sheila the war was a lost cause. </p>
<p>Subjunctive moods:
Had the President of Djibouti not dismiss the general public’s opinions during the meeting, he would have acquired a nearly unanimous vote from the politicians. </p>
<p>More subjunctive case! :
Ulysses, listless as ever, only proposed that Stonewall Jackson not charge the Yankees without assurance from George Jackson that backup would arrive should he encounter a quagmire.</p>
<p>Anaphora:</p>
<p>Given the circumstances Aeneas was in he had to flee. Given the forewarnings of Hector and the Greek Gods, Aeneas had to leave his valuable possessions and plunder. Given the impending doom of the citizens of Troy, Aeneas, inspiring wisdom at a time of anxiety, ordered that all men, women, and children meet at the shores of Erusba for the Greeks had impregnated the city of established culture. </p>
<p>Of course not all rhetorical devices are feasible to use on the SAT essay portion. What other rhetorical devices do you recommend?</p>