SAT Skills Insight
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6/1
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Select a score band
Manage order and relationships of sentences and paragraphs
Skills needed to score in this band
SKILL 1: Recognize the need for specific examples in order to develop ideas appropriately
SKILL 2: Recognize context beyond the sentence in question in order to make the appropriate correction
SKILL 3: Recognize the function of a piece of text (e.g., adds supporting detail, serves as a transition from one idea to the next or from one paragraph to the next)
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1
Recognize context beyond the sentence in question in order to make the appropriate correction
ExampleThe following passage is an early draft of an essay. Some parts of the passage need to be rewritten. Read the passage and select the best answers for the questions that follow. Some questions are about particular sentences or parts of sentences and ask you to improve sentence structure or word choice. Other questions ask you to consider organization and development. In choosing answers, follow the requirements of standard written English.
View Passage
(1) It is inappropriate to judge people solely according to their behavior in social situations. (2) An example of this may be about people who are shy. (3) If they do not know a shy person, many people will jump to conclusions as to why that person is acting in this manner. (4) Take my uncle Roger, for example. (5) On first meeting my uncle, some people consider him either snobbish or a little strange.
(6) Why will Uncle Roger be often labeled as a snob? (7) The answer is simple. (7) Like other shy people, my uncle does not feel comfortable with people he does not know well, and when he is introduced to strangers he does not have much to say. (8) People who meet him for the first time are offended. (9) They think he looks down at them. (10) But Uncle Roger, because he feels uneasy, is simply reluctant to talk about himself.
(11) Those who are not shy often cannot understand shyness. (12) Uncle Roger is labeled as strange by many outgoing people who, because they cannot relate to his behavior, fail to see my uncle’s kindness and sense of humor. (13) Not all people act the way they think and feel.
In context, which of the following is the best way to phrase sentence 6 (reproduced below)?
Why will Uncle Roger be often labeled as a snob?
Skills needed to score in the next band
In your reading, be able to recognize coherence, even in paragraphs with a complex development. In your own writing, develop multiple means of elaborating your ideas logically within a paragraph.
