By Jeffrey Dalton

The first thing I teach students about the Writing and Language section is to look at the question they are solving and ask themselves “What’s changing in the answer choices?” The answer to this question will lead them to what Writing and Language concept the question is testing (and hopefully, students will remember the technique I’ve taught for them every given concept). That’s the plan anyway.

After 10 years of tutoring students for standardized tests, I’ve started to notice patterns in 1) the types of mistakes that students make and 2) the types of questions that they get wrong. One of the hardest question-types I’ve seen (by which I mean the question-type that I see students struggle with most) are ones that deal with transitions between sentences and paragraphs. The SAT calls these Logical Transition questions. And students can expect to see at least 4 questions (1 per passage) on their official SAT exam.

Every SAT question (across all sections) is a mixture of “rules” and “technique.” By “rules,” I mean the background knowledge that the test expects you to have. And by “techniques,” I mean the special approach (or methodology) you need to apply. So let’s break down this question type and learn how to approach it.

Let’s take a look at a simple Logical Transition question in order to learn the rule and technique.

First, note that the answer choices are all transition words. This is the clue that tells us what the question is testing. The technique for tackling logical transition questions is to first ignore the actual transition words and figure out what 2 clauses the question is linking.

If we break down the question, we can isolate the 2 clauses being joined. The second step of the process is to ask ourselves about the relationship between the clauses. There are 4 broad categories of transition words: additive, adversative, sequential, causal.

Additive: The recipe is easy, and it’s quite delicious.

Adversative: The violin is difficult to master, but it’s quite a beautiful instrument.

Sequential: You have to call the shop. Then, you can make an appointment.

Causal: I cannot go to work today, because I am not feeling well.

In reality, there are more than 16 different types of transitions that are used to illustrate relationships like emphasis, similarity, concession, clarification, etc… But these 4 broad categories are a fair starting place.

Looking back at our 2 clauses, let’s summarize what we are told: 1) Hamilton helped secure victory at Yorktown and then returned home to open a successful law practice. 2) People didn’t recognize his success until later. These 2 sentences contrast with each other. So let’s use the Process of Elimination to find the right answer.

Answer choice A is an additive transition, specifically one of conclusion, which does not represent the type of relationship we have. Choice C is an additive transition of generalization. We are not noting a part-to-whole relationship, or drawing a general conclusion based on a specific example. Choice D is a sequential transition indicating that 2 events are happening simultaneously. We are left with B, which is an adversative transition of contrast.

Let’s look at another.

Again, we must ask ourselves “What is changing in the answer choices?” And then we must recognize the opportunity to apply our strategy of isolating clauses and considering the relationship between them:

Our first clause is a conclusion, and our second is an example that supports the conclusion. Answer choice A is an adversative transition that indicates that surprising information is coming up. Answer choice B is an adversative transition of concession. Answer choice C is an additive transition of similarity. This answer choice is a bit a “trap” since these 2 clauses are indeed additive. However, answer choice D is an additive transition of support (or illustration) and is thus a better option.

Let’s look at 1 final example. Try this on your own.

Let’s start by isolating the clauses that we are joining. It’s a little trickier this time.

Our first clause is a general statement, a conclusion of sorts. The second statement is an example of what the foundation does. Let’s take a look at our answer choices. Answer choice A is an additive transition of conclusion. Let’s keep it. Answer choice B is an adversative transition of concession. Let’s eliminate it. Answer choice C is a causative transition showing (in a sense) that the second idea will cause the first. Let’s keep it. Answer choice D is an additive transition of emphasis. Let’s keep it.

Tough one! We have several possible answers. All of these answer choices seem correct, and in fact, they are all “grammatically” correct. However, only 1 of these answer choices correctly illustrates the relationship: answer choice C!

- Hale Education Group