Domain: Craft and Structure | Skill: Text Structure and Purpose | Difficulty: Medium
Mastering the SAT: Medium Strategies for Text Structure & Purpose
Welcome to your next step in mastering the SAT Reading section! If you’ve ever felt like you understand what a passage says but get stuck on questions about how or why the author wrote it, you’ve come to the right place. This is the heart of Text Structure and Purpose questions. These questions, especially at the medium difficulty level, move beyond simple comprehension. They ask you to act like a detective, analyzing the author’s blueprint to understand how they constructed their argument or narrative. Mastering this skill is crucial for building confidence and demonstrating a deeper understanding of the texts you’ll encounter on test day.
Decoding the Questions: Common Stems and What They Mean
First, let’s familiarize ourselves with what these questions look like. They often use specific phrasing to ask about the author’s choices. Here’s a quick guide to the most common question stems.
| Typical Stem | What It Really Asks | Quick Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text? | How is the text organized from start to finish? (e.g., claim then evidence, cause then effect, comparison) | Map the text’s flow. For example: “First, the author states X. Then, they provide examples of X.” |
| Which choice best states the main purpose of the text? | What is the author’s primary goal? (e.g., to explain, persuade, criticize, describe) | Ask yourself, “Why did the author write this?” The answer must cover the entire text, not just one part. |
| Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole? | What specific job does this sentence or phrase do for the overall argument? | Read the sentences immediately before and after the underlined part to understand its role and context. |
Real SAT-Style Example
Let’s look at a typical medium-difficulty passage and question to see these concepts in action.
Chef Julia Child revolutionized American cooking through both her cookbooks and television appearances. In her groundbreaking book Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961), Child presented complex French techniques using detailed step-by-step instructions written in a conversational style. This approachable writing method was further enhanced by her television show The French Chef, where she demonstrated these same techniques with her characteristic warmth and humor, making French cuisine seem accessible to home cooks who might otherwise have found it intimidating.
Question: Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
- A) It makes a claim about Child’s influence, then provides evidence supporting that claim. ✅
- B) It compares French and American cooking styles, then explains how Child combined them.
- C) It describes Child’s television career, then contrasts it with her work as an author.
- D) It outlines the content of Child’s cookbook, then explains how it influenced her TV show.
Correct Answer Explanation: The first sentence makes a broad claim: “Chef Julia Child revolutionized American cooking…” The rest of the passage provides two key pieces of evidence to support this claim: her influential cookbook and her popular television show. Therefore, the structure is best described as a claim followed by supporting evidence.
Your 4-Step Strategy for Medium Structure & Purpose Questions
When you encounter one of these questions, don’t panic. Follow this systematic approach to break it down.
- Identify the Main Idea First: Before analyzing structure, get a firm grip on the text’s central point. What is the single most important message the author is trying to convey?
- Map the “Jobs” of Each Part: Don’t get lost in the details. Read the text again, but this time, summarize the function of each sentence or major clause. Think in terms of simple actions: “makes a claim,” “gives an example,” “offers a definition,” “presents a counterargument.”
- Predict the Structure in Your Own Words: Based on your map from Step 2, formulate a simple sentence describing the text’s organization or purpose. For example: “The author explains a problem and then proposes a solution.”
- Match Your Prediction and Eliminate Wrong Answers: Carefully compare your prediction to the answer choices. The correct answer will accurately reflect the entire text’s flow. Be wary of choices that are too narrow (only describing one part) or that misrepresent the relationship between parts (e.g., calling supporting evidence a “contrast”).
Applying the Strategy to Our Julia Child Example
Let’s walk through the Julia Child question using our 4-step strategy to see how it leads directly to the correct answer.
Step 1: Identify the Main Idea
The main idea is stated clearly in the first sentence: “Chef Julia Child revolutionized American cooking…” Everything else in the passage should relate back to this central point.
Step 2: Map the “Jobs” of Each Part
– Sentence 1: Makes a big claim about Child’s revolutionary influence.
– Sentence 2: Provides the first piece of evidence (her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking) and explains how it worked (detailed, conversational instructions).
– Sentence 3: Provides a second piece of evidence (her TV show, The French Chef) and explains how it furthered her influence (making French cuisine seem accessible).
Step 3: Predict the Structure
Based on our map, a good prediction would be: “The text starts with a claim that Julia Child was revolutionary, and then it gives her book and TV show as two examples of evidence to prove that claim.”
Step 4: Match and Eliminate
Now we evaluate the choices against our prediction:
– A) It makes a claim about Child’s influence, then provides evidence supporting that claim. This perfectly matches our prediction. It’s a strong contender.
– B) It compares French and American cooking styles… The text never compares the two styles. It’s about how Child presented French cooking to Americans. Eliminate.
– C) It describes Child’s television career, then contrasts it with her work as an author. The text says her TV show enhanced her writing’s accessibility; it doesn’t contrast the two. Eliminate.
– D) It outlines the content of Child’s cookbook… The text mentions the book as evidence but doesn’t “outline its content.” This is too narrow and slightly inaccurate. Eliminate.
By following the steps, Choice A is clearly the only one that accurately describes the entire passage’s structure.
Ready to Try It on Real Questions?
Theory is great, but targeted practice is where real progress happens. Put these strategies to the test with official-style questions on mytestprep.ai.
1 . Login using your account or signup on mytestprep.ai
2 . Click on Practice Sessions once you are on the dashboard. You will see the link on the left side navigation menu of the dashboard
3 . Click on Create New Session
4 . Start with Co-Pilot Mode on with hints and explanations—it’s like having a personal coach who explains exactly why each answer is right or wrong
5 . Select Reading as your subject
6 . Select Craft and Structure under Domain, Text Structure and Purpose as skill and Medium difficulty
7 . Select desired number of questions
8 . Start practicing. Happy Practicing!
Key Takeaways
As you tackle Text Structure and Purpose questions, remember these core principles:
- Think Function, Not Just Facts: Focus on the role each part of the text plays in the author’s overall project.
- Map the Flow: Identify the logical connections between ideas (e.g., Claim → Evidence, Cause → Effect, Comparison).
- Predict Before You Peek: Formulate your own answer before looking at the choices to avoid being misled by tempting distractors.
- Verify and Eliminate: The correct answer must be true for the entire text, not just a small piece of it.
Keep practicing, and you’ll soon find that you’re not just reading passages—you’re seeing right through them to the author’s core strategy.
