All SAT Writing Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Moving Sentences
1 Wedding customs range between families and social classes, but also between countries. 2 Since the dawn of time, human couples have been entering into long-term romantic commitments with each other. 3 In Ethiopia, for example, one of the groom’s friends sprays perfume inside the house of the groom’s future wife; while in Finland, engaged women go door-to-door with pillowcases to accept wedding gifts. 4 Certain celebratory traditions, such as eating special food and reciting some sort of vows or prayers, are so widely practiced today that they seem almost unilateral.
5 Recently, the very definition of marriage has shifted to include same-sex couples, both in popular culture and in certain nations’ and American states’ laws. 6 Dancing is an important part of many marriage ceremonies and celebrations, and festive wedding music can be found across a wide variety of cultures. 7 The presence of family members is also common to weddings in nearly every nation, although fathers do not always “give away” brides; sometimes mothers, grandparents, or even siblings play this role instead.
Where would Sentence 2 fit best?
Before Sentence 4
Before Sentence 5
Before Sentence 6
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 3 (no change)
Before Sentence 1
Sentence 2 doesn’t belong between Sentences 1 and 3, since it’s splitting up two sentences that are both discussing marriage customs in various countries. Because Sentence 2 is a broad, introductory statement, it would work well at the very beginning of the passage.
Example Question #2 : Moving Sentences
1 Tattoos have even been found on ancient Icelandic, Egyptian, and South American mummies.2 On their various voyages to the South Pacific, Captain Cook and other European explorers brought back accounts of colorfully inked natives, and their sailors soon began to adopt the practice. 3 Early medieval Northern European tribes such as the Picts and Visigoths were often heavily tattooed; particularly the warriors. 4 Over the centuries, various cultures have described various meanings to tattoos, with indelible ink signifying everything from royalty to gang membership to magical powers.
5 Interestingly modern-day tattooing’s popularity evolved out of its adoption by wealthy British nobility, and by American celebrities, musicians, and actors. 6 While tattoos do have a dark past, most notably at Auschwitz, where Nazi’s identified prisoners by tattooing numbers on their arms. 7 Tattoos can be signs of joy, belief, or even healing, such as the colorful tattoos that breast cancer survivors use to cover mastectomy scars.
8 Today, there are more options than ever before, tattoo artists often have fine arts training, lengthy apprenticeships, and can offer specialty inks that glow in the dark or are easier to remove. 9 The internet is full of design ideas, tattoo parlor rankings, and even horror stories about bad tattoo experiences. 10 Now more than ever, information about ink abounds. 11 Choose wisely!
Where should Sentence 3 be moved in the passage?
After Sentence 4
After Sentence 8
Before Sentence 2
After Sentence 7
Before Sentence 6
Before Sentence 2
The passage gives a chronological synopsis of tattooing’s development, so the earlier events (Sentence 3) should appear before the later events (Sentence 2).
Example Question #1 : Moving Sentences
1 Although agritourism is a fairly recent phenomenon in the Western world; it is proving popular in many countries. 2 Agritourism is broadly defined as any activity or attraction that draws visitors to a farm, and it can include anything from corn mazes and apple picking to vineyard tours, workshops on animal husbandry, and work-stay exchange programs. 3 The practice is particularly prevocalic in North America, Europe, and Australia. 4 With a huge variety of farms and activities available to agritourists. 5 For example: visitors can learn how to run a cattle drive in Wyoming, make cheese in France, harvest olives in Sicily, or pick kiwi fruit in New Zealand.
6 Income generated from agritourism can help small family farms remain soluble as well as educate the public about where their food comes from. 7 Henceforth, most people agree that agritourism is benevolent for everyone involved. 8 While there are some who argue that it is a cheap ploy designed to make selfish tourists feel better about their vacations. 9 All in all, it will be interesting to see how agritourism continues to develop in the future.
Where should Sentence 2 be placed?
Before Sentence 5
Before Sentence 7
Before Sentence 3 (no change)
Before Sentence 9
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 1
Sentence 2 defines a concept that the rest of the passage explains in more detail, so it makes sense to place it at the very beginning of the text.
Example Question #1 : Moving Sentences
1 Some of the best-known badlands occur in North America; Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah, and the Big Muddy Badlands in Saskatchewan. 2 Have you ever been to the badlands? 3 Despite their name, badlands are often fascinating topographical regions. 4 With beautiful vistas as well. 5 Elsewhere badlands can be found in Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and Argentina.6 Badlands are distinguished by their stark, dry terrain, their sharply eroded landscapes, their lack of vegetation, and their colorful, clay-rich rocks. 7 They often include geological features such as canyons, gullies, mesas, buttes, and hoodoos. 8 Nevertheless, visiting badlands can be an uncommon but rewarding experience.
Where should Sentence 1 be moved?
After Sentence 6
After Sentence 3
After Sentence 2
After Sentence 4
After Sentence 5
After Sentence 4
Sentence 1 doesn’t belong at the beginning of the passage, since it is giving details about a topic rather than providing an introduction to that topic. Since Sentence 5 lists other places that badlands can be found, Sentence 1 best fits immediately before that sentence.
Example Question #2 : Moving Sentences
1 Deaccession or deaccessioning is defined as the intentional disposing or selling of books from library’s collections. 2 And is often undertaken to make room for newer volumes, to shift the focus of the library’s collection, or to reflect changing trends in literature. 3 Many people disagree vehicularly about which books should be deaccessioned, when and how books should be disposed of, and even whether books should be deaccessioned at all. 4 Book deaccession: It sounds boring, but is in fact one of the more controversial and problematic aspects of running a library. 5 Though others argue that it allows libraries to remain current and relevant to the public’s reading needs. 6 No doubt it is a topic that will continue to provoke debate for years to come.
Where should Sentence 4 be moved in the passage?
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 3
Before Sentence 5 (no movement)
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 6
Before Sentence 1
Sentence 4 provides a clear and engaging introduction to the passage’s main topic and flows nicely into the original Sentence 1, so it should be placed at the very beginning of the passage.
Example Question #3 : Moving Sentences
1 All in all, aviation will likely continue to fascinate people for centuries to come. 2 Long before the famous Wright brothers humans were attempting to fly. 3 The ancient Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus shows the tantalizing allusion of flight. 4 With large kites’ in China may have been the first successful instance of human flight several thousand years ago. 5 Hundreds of years later and despite many hazings; the Montgolfier brothers and other pioneering aviators began experimenting with manned hot-air balloon flights. 6 Therefore, technology has advanced to the point of supersonic and hypersonic flight, but people are still trying to break new barriers and invent new methods of flight.
Where should Sentence 1 be moved?
After Sentence 4
After Sentence 5
After Sentence 6
After Sentence 2
After Sentence 3
After Sentence 6
The fact that Sentence 1 begins with a concluding/summarizing transitional phrase (“All in all”) hints that it serves as a conclusion. This impression is supported by the content of the sentence, which wraps up the main topic of the passage nicely. For this reason, it should be moved after the last sentence in the passage.
Example Question #11 : Moving Sentences
1 Visitors to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or other United States are often astounded when they encounter an Amish person. 2 To someone who is not familiar with this religious community, the lifestyle seems to harp back to a bygone era. 3 In particular the Amish are known for their plain garments, their eschewal of modern technology, their use of horses and buggies, and their exquisite handicrafts, including: wooden furniture, intricate quilts, and fruit pies. 4 Contact with the outside world is limited, and communities are often as insolent now as when they emigrated from Switzerland in the 1700s.
5 The people are governed strictly in their auspicious behavior, dress, and lifestyle by a set of rules known as Ordnung, and most speak both Pennsylvania Dutch and English. 6 Their religious beliefs are most closely related to Mennonites, and they observe many common Christian practices: baptism, marriage, and Sunday church services, for example. 7 Whereas, the Amish also practice rumspringa, a period of adolescent exploration, as well as excommunication and shunning to exclude those who do not conform to the community’s beliefs and practices. 8 What does life look like inside an Amish community? 9 Wherewithal, there seem to be both positive and negative aspects to this emphasis on family ties, manual labor, and religious belief.
Where should Sentence 8 be moved in the passage?
Before Sentence 5
Before Sentence 6
Before Sentence 3
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 4
Before Sentence 5
Sentence 8 asks a question that Sentence 6 and subsequent sentences begin to answer, so it makes sense for the answer to be immediately preceded by the question.
Example Question #171 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Dehydration is a potentially serious medical condition that arrives when a patients’ metabolic processes are disrupted by a lack of water in the body. 2 What can cause dehydration? 3 Dehydration can be caused by overexertion, sickness (vomiting or diarrhea), or sun exposure; among other factors. 4 Treatments for dehydration include: drinking small quantities of clear fluid and intravenous hydration. 5 Symptoms of dehydration vary by the severance of water loss, but the most common signs are increased thirst, a swollen tongue, dizziness, weakness, and fainting. 6 If treatment is not sanctioned quickly dehydration can result in delirium, seizures, and even death. 7 Dehydration is most often a problem in the developing world, where insect- and water-borne disease and a lack of accessible medical care causing many preventable infant fatalities.
Where should Sentence 4 be moved in the passage?
After Sentence 6
After Sentence 5
After Sentence 1
After Sentence 3
After Sentence 7
After Sentence 5
Sentence 4 introduces two treatments of dehydration, and Sentence 6 discusses the ramifications of not applying these treatments, so the passage would flow better if Sentence 4 immediately preceded Sentence 6.
Example Question #172 : Improving Paragraphs
1 Many painters have strong sediments about whether oil or acrylic paints produce the best results. 2 On the one hand, oil paints take longer to dry and are therefore more conductive to slow painstaking work and careful blending. 3 While, they also require the use of more toxic chemicals such as turpentine and mineral spirits. 4 Professional artists are often meritorious about the materials they use. 5 Acrylic paints are now favored by more and more artists, not only because they are odorless and nontoxic and also because their colors are not effervescent, they don’t fade when exposed to light. 6 However, many of the worlds’ great masterpieces were created with oil paints. 7 With some artists understandably feel nasturtium when they see oils being replaced by cheaper, more popular acrylics.
Where should Sentence 4 be moved in the passage?
Before Sentence 1
Before Sentence 3
Before Sentence 7
Before Sentence 2
Before Sentence 6
Before Sentence 1
Sentence 4 has the broadest scope out of all the other sentences, so it belongs at either the beginning or the end of the passage. It doesn’t flow naturally from Sentence 7, so using it as an introduction is the best option.
Example Question #64 : Separating, Combining, Or Moving Sentences
1 The Moluccas is a chain, or archetype, of islands belonging to Indonesia. 2 Historically, these islands were known as the Spice Islands for their abundance of nutmeg, cloves, mace, and pepper, this profundity of spices eventually drew colonial attention. 3 Spices such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, anise, and pepper were particularly popular during the medieval times. 4 In the 1600s, the Spice Wars arose as a result of competing Portuguese and Dutch interest’s in the Spice Islands. 5 The bloody conflict ended in the deaths of many native Moluccans as well as European traders, wherefore both Portugal and the Netherlands gained and lost territories ranging from Africa and South America. 6 For this day, strife occasionally breaks out on the islands although it is now motivated by religious and not colonial disagreements.7 It is located just west of New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, and its more than 1,000 islands are home to more than 2 million people today.
Where should Sentence 7 be moved in the passage?
After Sentence 5
After Sentence 1
After Sentence 4
After Sentence 3
After Sentence 2
After Sentence 1
Sentence 7 presents basic introductory information, so it belongs closer to the beginning of the passage; however, since it begins with a pronoun (“It”) lacking a referent, it would make more sense to place the sentence immediately after a sentence in which the pronoun’s referent is introduced.
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