In both the SAT Writing and Language section and the ACT English section you will find questions that test you on how well you can identify the organization of ideas in a passage, paragraph, or sentence.

While punctuation and grammar questions test you on your knowledge of rules, these rhetorical strategy questions test you on your ability to comprehend the logical development of the passage, supporting examples, introductions and conclusions, sentence order, paragraph order, addition or deletion of information—and don’t have to do with grammar as such.

 

How important are these questions?

 

On SAT Writing and Language, approximately 12 of the 44 questions will be rhetorical strategy questions, while on the ACT English section, 10-12 of the 75 questions will pertain to rhetorical strategy. As the numbers show, rhetorical strategy questions are really important for a great score on both the ACT and the SAT. Getting even 5 questions wrong on the ACT English section will pull your score down from a 31 to 27 on the English section (scored out of 36) On the SAT, getting even 5 questions wrong can pull your Writing and Language score down from a 40 to a 32 in turn causing your evidence-based reading and writing combined score to dip drastically.

In other words, you cannot leave rhetorical strategy questions to chance. Focus on developing effective approaches to such questions with the same commitment that you bring to grammar and punctuation problems.
 

The most common strategic mistake when solving rhetorical strategy questions

 

Mistake: Reading everything except the sentences before and after the sentence underlined.

When solving rhetorical strategy questions, we tend to approach them as “involving the entire passage” instead of focusing on how the portion is linked to the preceding and succeeding sentence in terms of meaning. 

This focus on the “entire passage” creates unnecessary confusion and stops you from looking at the correct answer choice as a simple connecting element or bridge between two sentences.

Solution: Don’t panic and find the bridge! 

We will be looking at three examples, two from the SAT and one from the ACT. 

A rhetorical strategy question based on a sentence

This question asks us to “set up” or “introduce” “the information provided in the next part of the sentence.” When solving such a question, read through till the end of the sentence. If the context is not clear read the previous sentence as well (Remember that you are reading the passage in sequence anyway so this shouldn’t be a problem). The portion after the colon talks about combining digital files from drones into color-coded maps. These maps mark zones indicating different things such as weather damage, etc.  This does sound like “analysis”. We have found our bridge from drone companies to the list of things these companies do (create maps from data or, in other words, analyze the data).

Therefore, Choice A is definitely correct.

Choices B, C, and D are incorrect because the sentence does not talk about profit, mobile apps, or specialty crops.

A rhetorical strategy question based on a paragraph

This best introduction to the paragraph question needs to be solved by not only reading the entire paragraph (that you must do) but also by focusing on the grammar and meaning bridges between the first (the one we need to choose) and the second sentences.

This question is phrased differently from the previous one but it is not that different. The next sentence talks about how Georg set the stage for the climactic murder of Caesar in a pretty complex or nuanced way. There was nothing direct about how he set the stage and he wanted to suggest the inescapability of the ruler’s fate. The next sentences also go into further detail of how Georg planned everything meticulously. Georg’s nuanced approach is the bridge. 

Choice C is correct because it talks about Georg’s choreography and intricacy.

A rhetorical question based on deleting information

 

In the preceding sentence Anna laughed … treasure we need to focus simply on the bridge between We continued exploring the dunes and given our luck finding fulgurites… she wanted to keep searching. 

Choice D, which looks tempting at first, immediately gets eliminated because if the sentence is indeed a moment of excited realization that they can find the fulgurite in a gift shop, then there’s no reason for Anna to want to keep searching. Then they would have instead started searching for a gift shop.  

Choice C is the best bridge because Anna’s comment and laugh obviously hint at a joke or light hearted conversation in the course of their grueling search.

As you can see, these three very different rhetorical strategy questions were all solved using the same approach.

Don’t panic and find the bridge!

Focusing on meaning and grammar links between sentences, no matter the type of rhetorical strategy question, will help you arrive at the correct answer much more effectively.