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SAT Reading and Writing Unit 2: Craft and structure

These questions ask what a word means in context, why a sentence or passage is built a certain way, and how two texts relate.

Covers: Words in context, text structure and purpose, cross-text connections

Study guide

Craft and Structure questions test how authors use language and organize ideas. Words in context questions ask what a word or phrase most nearly means in a specific sentence. Cover the choices, predict a word that fits, then pick the closest match. The trap is usually a common meaning of the word that doesn't fit this context, so always reread the sentence with your choice plugged in.

Text structure and purpose questions ask why the author wrote the text or what a particular sentence does. Think in verbs: does it explain, argue, illustrate, contrast, challenge, introduce, or qualify a claim? For the overall purpose, look at the whole passage; for a sentence's function, look at how it connects to the sentences around it. A sentence that begins "however" usually introduces a contrast or counterpoint, and one that begins "for example" provides support.

Cross-text connections questions pair two short passages, often on the same topic from different viewpoints. They ask how the author of Text 2 would most likely respond to a claim in Text 1. Identify each text's main claim first, then decide whether Text 2 agrees, disagrees, qualifies or extends Text 1, and pick the answer that matches that relationship and the specific point being discussed.

Across these questions, attention to tone (critical, enthusiastic, neutral, skeptical) and to the author's attitude toward other viewpoints helps eliminate wrong choices.

Words-in-context questions draw on common academic vocabulary. Review words such as posit, speculate, concurrent, prescribed, benign, peripheral, substantial, intersect, dismiss and sustained, and note their exact shades of meaning. Two answer choices often share a general sense, but only one has the precise connotation the sentence needs. In research passages, sentences usually play a predictable role: they state the question or hypothesis, describe the method (how researchers tested it), report a finding, or draw an implication. Label each sentence with one of these roles before you answer a function question.

After predicting a word, check that your choice fits the logic of the sentences around it, such as a contrast signaled by "although" or a cause signaled by "because." A word can fit grammatically and still reverse the author's point. For overall-structure questions, summarize the passage as a sequence of moves, such as "describes a common view, then presents evidence that complicates it." Then match the choice that lists the same moves in the same order.

Key ideas

• Words in context: replace the word with each choice and see which keeps the meaning.
• Text purpose: ask what the author is doing (explaining, arguing, contrasting, describing).
• Structure: track how each sentence relates to the one before it.
• Cross-text: figure out each author's view, then how one would respond to the other.
• Predict an answer before looking at the choices.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Picking the most common meaning of a word instead of the meaning in this sentence.
• Confusing what a passage says with why the author wrote it.

Words to know

Words in context

Predict a word, then test each choice in the sentence.

Text purpose

Why the author wrote the passage or sentence.

Cross-text connection

How one author would respond to another.

Words-in-context trap

A word's most common meaning, when the sentence uses a different one.

Contrast signal words

However, but, yet, although.

Text-purpose verbs

Explain, argue, illustrate, contrast, challenge.

Text structure

How a text is organized: problem-solution, compare-contrast, chronological, claim-support.

Sentence function

What a sentence does: introduce, support, contrast, qualify or conclude.

Qualify a claim

Limit or soften it.

Tone

The author's attitude: critical, enthusiastic, neutral, skeptical.

Author's perspective

How the author views the topic or other viewpoints.

Predicting a word

Cover the choices and fill the blank in your own words first.

Sample practice questions

83 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.