THE “OPTIONAL” ESSAY
The Essay section used to be a required part of the SAT, but not all colleges found this score to be helpful.
This is why the essay is now “optional.” Your essay score is now completely separate from your total
score, so opting out of the essay will not have any effect on your 400–1600 score. Notice how we’re
using quotation marks whenever we say the essay is “optional,” though? You should consider the essay to
be optional for colleges, but not optional for you.
The problem is that some schools require the essay while others don’t, and you can’t do the essay
independently of the rest of the SAT. That means if you opt out of the essay and later you realize you need
it for your application, you can’t simply redo just the essay: You have to redo the entire SAT. So go ahead
and write the essay. You’ve already killed a Saturday morning, you’re sitting in the testing room, and it’s
not ridiculously challenging to prepare for this essay. Just write it.
Writing the essay can make your college application look more attractive. Your essay score will appear
on every score report you send to colleges, regardless of whether or not the school requires an essay.
Every school to which you apply will see that you took the initiative to write the essay, which is a good
thing.
YOUR ESSAY MISSION
In 50 minutes, you’ll be required to read a text and write a logical, well-constructed analysis of the
author’s argument. The thing to remember here is that you are not being asked for your opinion on a topic
or a text. Your essay will be an objective analysis of a speech or argument.
The prompt will be nearly the same every time, just with a different source text, and will be something
like this:
As you read the passage below, consider how the author 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.
Write an essay in which you explain how [the author] builds an argument to persuade
[his/her] audience that [author’s claim]. In your essay, analyze how [the author] uses one
or more of the features listed above (or features of your own choice) to strengthen the
logic and persuasiveness of [his/her] argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on
the most relevant aspects of the passage.