SAT Essay Writing

Guide with Sample Prompts (Fifth Edition)

Vibrant Publishers

• Publisher: Vibrant Publishers
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781636510255
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Study Aids
• Subtopic: SAT Study Guides

• Overview of the SAT test and its scoring pattern

• Comprehensive guide for the SAT Essay section

• Effective strategies for mastering the SAT essay

• Pre-writing guidelines and sample essay for sixteen sample prompts

SAT Essay Writing Guide with Sample Prompts is your guide to a perfect SAT essay score. The proven way to get that perfect score on the SAT essay is through lots and lots of practice; this book offers exactly that! It has sixteen sample prompts in line with the SAT guidelines, followed by passages from high-quality published source, pre-writing guidance, plenty of strategies and a sample essay response. Besides the sample prompts, the book provides information about the revised SAT test and its scoring process. It also includes detailed guidance on the new SAT essay section: why the essay should be taken, format of the essay tasks, how to develop a top-scoring essay, scoring mechanism and effective strategies for mastering the SAT essay.

All this makes SAT Essay Writing Guide with Sample Prompts a comprehensive essay writing guide and a must-have resource for those aspiring to crack the SAT essay.

Includes

• Complete information about the SAT essay section

• Sixteen sample prompts with pre-writing guidance and sample essay responses

• Passages adapted from high-quality published material

• Strategies and Tips for high scores

About Test Prep Series

The focus of the Test Prep Series is to make test preparation streamlined and fruitful for competitive exam aspirants. Students preparing for the entrance exams now have access to the most comprehensive series of prep guides for GRE, GMAT and SAT preparation. All the books in this series are thoroughly researched, frequently updated and packed with relevant content. These have been prepared by authors with more than 10 years experience in the field. The simple and well organized format of the books in this series makes studying more efficient and effective.

Solved Essays

This chapter covers 16 Solved Essay prompts. Each essay is broken into three parts:

a) Prompt: includes the prompt and the passage

b) Pre-Essay Writing: includes the strategies to be used to develop a top-scoring essay

c) Sample Essay: includes a sample essay written for reference

Based on the strategies explained in the Pre-Essay writing and the sample essay, write your own essay in separate sheets of paper. The essay gives you an opportunity to show how effectively you can read and comprehend a passage and write an essay analyzing the passage. In your essay, you should demonstrate that you have read the passage carefully, present a clear and logical analysis, and use language precisely. Remember that people who are not familiar with your handwriting will read what you write. Try to write or print so that what you are writing is legible to those readers.

You have 50 minutes to read the passage and write an essay in response to the prompt provided.

Essay 1

Prompt

As you read the passage below, consider how Chandler uses

- evidence, such as facts or examples, to support claims.

-reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.

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

Adapted from Adam Chandler, “Nothing Can Replace the Bodega” Copyright 2017 by The New York Times. Originally published September 13, 2017.

1 Like solar eclipses and bipartisan legislation, moments of near-universal consensus are extremely rare. One such event took place on Wednesday, when a start-up named Bodega stated its intention to put its namesake - real-life, neighborhood corner stores - out of business by replacing them with unmanned pantries.

2 “Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you,” one of its co-founders told Fast Company. The start-up, run by two ex-Googlers, was widely savaged across social media on the grounds that its name and business mission are culturally insensitive, morally dubious, and, perhaps worse of all, lack personality.

3 Few things make a New Yorker defensive like an assault on bodegas. Largely immigrant-owned, they are the ultimate frills-free symbol of consumer access and gritty mini-embodiments of both the city’s diversity and its 24/7 ethos. Bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches in the morning, basic groceries and oversized heroes in the afternoon, and, inevitably, all three of these things at 3 a.m.

4 In other words, a bodega has crucial provisions whenever you need them, judgment-free and generally at a small-to-medium markup. Alka-Seltzer, regular seltzer, Gatorade, and Advil. Toilet paper and deodorant. Tampons and condoms. Last winter, a bodega on the Lower East Side gained a small measure of fame or notoriety when it was reported that customers could order Plan B pills online and have them delivered to their apartments.

5 But in addition to their convenience, what make bodegas beloved are their personalities. It seems like every one of them is oddly curated: prayer candles sit next to jarred olives which are sidled up next to boxes organic mac-and-cheese. There is no Silicon Valley algorithm clever enough to come up with those crumbly, shrink-wrapped date bars that are inevitably piled up by the cash registers.

6 Michael Silber is a graphic designer who has documented over 1,200 New York City bodegas over the past three years for Deli Grossery, a project whose name is a nod to the iconic and idiosyncratic food signage outside of corner stores. “For me, bodegas and deli groceries really encapsulate the character and culture of a neighborhood,” Mr. Silber noted in an email. “Each has its own delicacies or quirks, whether it be a famous chopped cheese sandwich, unfamiliar Polish specialty foods, or a friendly bodega cat.” (Further fanning the flames for Bodega is that the company logo is a cat, an unlawful fixture and unofficial mascot of many corner stores.)

7 Of course, the most meaningful difference between Wi-Fi-enabled vending machines and family-run corner stores is the human being. Corner stores aren’t just a small compensation for living in a dense city. They also enable countless New Yorkers to begin their day with routines that are both rote and reassuring, whether it’s a buttered roll, a cup of coffee, or a sane, friendly encounter.

8 A well-cultivated, strategic relationship with your bodega can mean that you might have a safe place for your spare keys and packages. If you’re really lucky, the clerks will share their life stories with you, tell you about all the ways you’re screwing up your romantic life, and remember that you add American cheese to everything.

9 My first bodega in New York was on 8th Avenue, where I was known as “Houston” by the staff because, well, I’m from Houston. Of course, it was pronounced like the nearby street in Lower Manhattan rather than the city in Texas. At first, it irritated me to no end. Then I realized, it was a way of letting me know that I had arrived.

10 Many years later, my current bodega opened on my block in Brooklyn a year after I had moved in. Their shelves were still half-stocked at their grand opening. When I asked if there would be date bars, they told me to come back tomorrow. It doesn’t get more high-tech than that.

Write an essay in which you explain how Chandler builds an argument to persuade his audience that bodegas can never be replaced. In your essay, analyze how Chandler uses one or more of the features listed above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant features of the passage.

Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Chandler’s claims, but rather explain how the author builds an argument to persuade his audience.

Pre-Essay Writing

Read the essay prompt before you read the provided text. Make sure you have a firm grasp on what the prompt is asking you to analyze in your essay. In this case, the prompt specifically says, “explain how Chandler builds an argument to persuade his audience that bodegas can never be replaced”. A keyword here is “how”. How does Chandler persuade his audience? Recall the bullet points already given to you, asking you to notice evidence such as facts, statistics, or reliable experience, reasoning that connects ideas through logic and explanation, and stylistic or persuasive elements such as word choice, emotional appeal, building credibility, etc. Chandler’s techniques will show up in his body paragraphs. As you read, take note of Chandler’s use of these things and begin to mentally map out your essay.

Some examples from Chandler’s text:

Facts

a) “A start-up named Bodega stated its intention to put its namesake - real-life, neighborhood corner stores - out of business by replacing them with unmanned pantries.”

b) “The start-up, run by two ex-Googlers, was widely savaged across social media...