SAT Essay Help: Understanding and Responding To Prompts and Assignments

Every SAT essay begins with a prompt, a short paragraph excerpted from a book, essay, or article. The essay prompt expresses a clear point of view on an issue. It's followed by an assignment that directs your writing. Most often, the assignment asks whether you agree or disagree with the prompt's position. The assignment also reminds you to back up your viewpoint with facts and examples from your classwork and reading (academic evidence) and/or what you have experienced or observed (personal evidence). You may choose to write a completely academic or personal essay, or combine the two.

Here's an example of an essay prompt:

There are only two kinds of choices available to us. First, the active: we make something happen and live with the consequences. Or we choose to not make a choice; we weigh the facts, decide the price of change is too high and make the choice to live with things as they are. The second kind of choice, the more dangerous, is the postponement of choice.

—Adapted from Making Choices, by Alexandra Stoddard

(William Morrow and Company, 1994)

Here is the assignment for this prompt:

Can it be dangerous to postpone choices? Organize and compose an essay that establishes your viewpoint on this issue. Substantiate it with examples and evidence derived from what you have read, studied, experienced, or observed.

The Assignment Holds The Key

Looking carefully at the prompt and assignment, you'll notice that the prompt contains much more information than the assignment directs you to respond to. Specifically, the prompt introduces the idea that there are only two available choices, and then discusses how choices are made and the consequences that follow a choice. The assignment zeros in on one small part of the prompt—whether or not it's dangerous to postpone making a choice.

If you pay too much attention to the prompt or to any piece of information it contains rather than focusing on the assignment, you could easily write an essay that's off topic. (Recall that no matter how well written, an off-topic essay will receive a score of zero.) Therefore, it's critically important that you respond exclusively to the assignment as you plan your essay by choosing supporting information, and then writing a thesis statement.

Prompt:

People with great projects underfoot habitually look further and more clearly into the future than people who are mired in day-to-day concerns. These former control the future because by necessity they must project themselves into it. They are seldom intimidated by the alarms and confusions of the present because they have something greater of their own, some sense of their large and coherent motion in time to compare the present with.

—Adapted from Time and the Art of Living,

by Robert Grudin (Harper & Row, 1982)

Assignment:

Does having a plan for your future help keep the concerns of daily living in better perspective? Organize and compose an essay that establishes your viewpoint on this issue. Substantiate it with examples and evidence derived from what you have read, studied, experienced, or observed.

Notice again how the assignment gives you everything you need to write the essay, and the prompt gives much more information. In fact, it might take you two or three minutes to read the prompt and understand it. For this reason, it makes sense to read the assignment first. If you feel you need more information, check the prompt. But keep in mind that you must respond only to the assignment. Reading the prompt is optional; it takes valuable minutes you could have spent planning or writing and should only be done—if at all—after you've read the assignment.

Step One: Determining the Heartbeat Words

It's worth repeating (and repeating, and repeating): Your essay won't score any points, no matter how well written, if it's off topic. That means your very first goal in the seconds after you open your SAT test booklet is to read the essay assignment and understand exactly what it says. While the assignment almost always begins with a question asking whether you agree or disagree with the point of view of the prompt, you should not answer it at this stage.

The first question you should answer, no matter the assignment, is: What is the essential idea, and what word or words express it? Because those words are vital to your understanding of the assignment, and because repeating them throughout your essay—like a pulse—shows your reader that you're staying on topic, we'll call them the "heartbeat words." In the first example, the heartbeat words are dangerous and choice. In the second, plan and perspective are the words you're looking for.

More Examples

Review each of the assignment questions that follow. The italicized words show the heartbeat terms.

benefit

hardship

misfortune

valuable

fit

emphasis

winning

function

in charge

better

original

Exercise

Identify and circle the heartbeat words for each of the following five prompts. When in doubt, choose more words than fewer.

Should we admire heroes but not celebrities?
Are people more likely to be productive and successful when they ignore the opinions of others?
Has today's abundance of information only made it more difficult for us to understand the world around us?
Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit?
Is identity something people are born with or given, or is it something people create for themselves?

Answers

Note that circling more words than are necessary is okay, but there should generally be no more than three for each assignment. The answers are indicated here in italics.

Should we admire heroes but not celebrities?
Are people more likely to be productive and successful when they ignore the opinions of others?
Has today's abundance of information only made it more difficult for us to understand the world around us?
Can knowledge be a burden rather than a benefit?
Is identity something people are born with or given, or is it something people create for themselves?

Step Two: Matching Theme to Content

Once you've identified the heartbeat word or words, you'll need to consider the content notes you developed in Chapter 2. Using the first example, ask, "In what topics (literature, science and technology, history, arts and music, historical biography) does the theme of choice appear?" Think through your content carefully to find examples. Don't worry about matching them exactly to the assignment (whether postponing a choice is dangerous)—right now, you're only looking for a link to the essential idea of the assignment.

From the sample content in Chapter 2, here's what could work:

The Scarlet Letter: Most characters have to make choices within the novel, including Dimmesdale's choice to refuse to acknowledge Pearl as his child until the end of the book.
Guernica: Picasso's difficulty choosing a subject for his painting created a situation in which he became inspired by a massacre in the Spanish city of Guernica.
The Great Depression: The U.S. government's decision to enforce the Smoot-Hawley Act is believed by many to have worsened the Depression because it reduced trade and led to retaliatory measures by other countries.
Climate change: With the Kyoto Protocol, many countries are choosing to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop alternative sources of energy.
Thomas Edison: Although Edison had many setbacks and failures, including losing a fortune in a failed attempt to invent a practical way to mine iron ore, he chose to persevere, experimenting and inventing many useful things.

Notice that there is a link between every topic and the idea of choice. You might not be able to find as many links for every assignment, but two or three are enough to plan your essay. Once you've got a list of potential topics, you'll need to get more specific. Ask, "Is the idea of the danger of postponing a choice in any of these topics?" It's this question that will help you give a direct answer to the assignment. If there are three good examples in which postponing a choice is dangerous, these are the topics you should use in your essay.

Let's look at each example to find evidence of the postponement of a choice.

The Scarlet Letter: Dimmesdale chooses to keep secret the fact that he is Pearl's father, but he reveals it at the end of the novel. You could say, then, that he postpones the choice of revealing the truth. What are the consequences of that postponement? It means that he withheld his love from his child. Pearl calls him a "strange, sad man," and the weight of his secret takes an enormous toll on him both spiritually and physically. Once he reveals it, he dies.

Guernica: Picasso postponed making a choice, but what were the consequences? While he was waiting to decide on a subject for his mural, one presented itself to him. In response, he created Guernica, which is considered one of the most powerful antiwar statements in the history of art. This example won't work with the thesis statement.

The Great Depression: The Smoot-Hawley Act was a choice, but it wasn't postponed. But is there another theme within the topic of the Great Depression about postponement? Was the Depression worsened or lengthened because of some delay? In 1931, Britain and Japan left the gold standard, meaning they would no longer exchange their currency for gold. Both countries recovered from the Depression much more quickly than those that postponed suspending gold convertibility. The United States waited until 1933, and France and Italy did not drop the gold standard until 1936. Most economists agree that the delay in leaving the standard had a direct link to the length of a country's economic depression.

Climate change: The choice of countries to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may be seen as a positive step toward protecting the earth from the potential disasters of climate change. But what about the countries that did not sign on and ratify the Kyoto Protocol? It could be said that the delay in taking action against global warming may contribute to more rapid negative consequences of climate change.

Thomas Edison: Edison is famous for saying that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. But the inventor's postponement of calling off some of his experiments caused serious consequences for him. In 1890, he began seeking a more practical way to mine iron ore, which was needed by the steel mills in Pennsylvania. There was great demand, and Edison knew that if he could find a way to better supply the iron ore, it would bring financial success. He invested all of his stock in General Electric (the profit he made on his invention of the lightbulb). But after building a plant to process the ore and investing years of his life as well as part of his fortune, the venture was deemed a failure. Who knows what Edison could have done with the time and money he spent on this failed venture, in which he invested about 20 years of his life.

ASSIGNMENTS ABOUT CONTEMPORARY LIFE

You may get a question about an aspect of modern society: whether people have become more materialistic or whether today's youth are less willing to conform, for example. You don't necessarily need to abandon your developed content to address these assignments. An effective approach is to use examples from the past (whether biography, literature, or history) and disagree with the prompt.

Let's use the second example: are youth less willing to conform today? To answer no would involve a thesis statement such as: throughout history, youth have been unwilling to conform easily to society's expectations. (Note the heartbeat words youth and conform.) By taking this position, you don't have to say much about today's youth—you can simply show through detailed example evidence that youth have always resisted conformity. Hester Prynne was a young woman when she had an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. She did so knowing the risk of such an act in her Puritanical Boston society. Likewise, Edison did not conform to the behaviors expected of him in school. His mother wisely removed him from the environment (encouraging his nonconformity in the 1800s!) and homeschooled him.

This approach can work for almost any modern society—themed assignment. Remember, it doesn't matter whether you actually agree or disagree. You simply need to choose a side and support it with appropriate examples.

Exercise

The second sample assignment has to do with planning and perspective. Using the topics introduced in Chapter 2, ask: In what topics does the idea of planning appear? In what topics does planning lead to better perspective? Aim to link each topic to these two questions.

Topic 1

Topic 2

Topic 3

Topic 4

Topic 5

When you've finished, check your ideas against the following:

The Scarlet Letter: Hester Prynne's daughter Pearl, like most children to their parents, is a symbol of the future. Although Hester's life as an outcast is difficult, her role as Pearl's mother gives her something to live for. Hester creates a life for herself and her daughter on the fringes of society and comes to accept her position. Even when Chillingworth tells her that she could leave and start a new life elsewhere, she chooses to stay.

Guernica: The feeling of hope may be interpreted as a plan for the future. When someone hopes, they believe that something better is coming, and they are able to endure the present. In Picasso's painting Guernica, the artist placed a flower and a lightbulb with sunlike rays around it in the midst of the devastations of war. These two symbols point to the future and help to lessen the pain of the present. With the bulb and the flower, Picasso was saying that things would get better.

The Great Depression: When the United States and much of the world's economies suffered a recession beginning in 2008, it was the lessons of the Great Depression that many experts turned to. Having that past example was important, and it helped to make people aware that we could take action.

Climate change: Many countries are planning ways to reduce the human contribution to global warming. These efforts include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and searching for cleaner forms of energy. It would be very easy to get depressed about the negative effects of climate change already being reported, such as the reduction in the size of polar ice caps. But knowing that great efforts are being made to lessen these effects helps to put the negative news in perspective.

Thomas Edison: Edison planned for the future by investing money in the largest laboratory in existence in 1886—knowing he would continue to try and invent useful things. This plan helped him to deal with the failures he experienced, such as a very expensive attempt to find a practical way to mine iron ore.

Notice that for each topic, a clear link is made between the idea of planning for the future and how such planning helps to give a better perspective on the present. Getting better at making these links comes with practice. You'll find five-minute exercises in Chapter 5 designed to improve your ability to think creatively about your topics and quickly create links to various assignments.

Step Three: Taking a Stand

You've got your list of links to the assignment. Now it's time to respond. Recall that most often you'll have the choice of agreeing or disagreeing with the point of view of the prompt. As you scan your list of links, an answer should be obvious. Can it be dangerous to postpone choices? For this assignment, check the links created with the topics from Chapter 2. There are a number of topics that can be used as examples, and it could be argued that the consequences of postponing choices can dangerous in some of the examples.

Since you only need two or three examples for your essay, it is during this step that you'll weigh the strength of each and choose your best material. In this case, the Picasso and Edison links to the assignment are the weakest. The Scarlet Letter, climate change, and the Great Depression topics provide the best examples of the dangers of postponing a choice.

Taking a Stand the Right Way

Do you agree or disagree with the question posed in the assignment? Many students make this their first step. Big mistake! you're not trying to decide whether you actually agree or disagree—your scorers don't know you and aren't concerned with how you think or feel about a given issue. Instead, develop a list of potential examples. Which side is supported by the majority of examples? That's the side you'll want to choose.

With that information, it's easy to answer the question in the assignment. Since three of the examples indicate that it can be dangerous to postpone a choice, the answer is yes. That answer becomes the basis for a thesis statement:

Postponing choices can not only lead to negative consequences, but those consequences can be dangerous.

Notice that this statement contains the heartbeat words dangerous and choices, and answers the question posed in the assignment.

Exercise

Now it's your turn. Using the list of examples for the second sample assignment (planning and perspective), complete these steps:

Choose the three examples that most strongly respond to the questions. (In what topics does the idea of planning appear? In what topics does planning lead to better perspective?)
Answer the assignment question. (Does having a plan for your future help keep the concerns of daily living in better perspective?)
Write a thesis statement that answers the assignment question using the heartbeat words planning and perspective.

Best examples

Yes or no: Does having a plan for your future help keep the concerns of daily living in better perspective?

Thesis statement (using heartbeat words planning and perspective)

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