SAT Reading & Writing: Text Structure and Organization
26+ practice questions in Praczo
The concept, explained
- 1
Text structure refers to how a passage is organized. Common structures: chronological, compare/contrast, problem-solution, cause-effect, claim-evidence.
- 2
Identifying structure helps you predict where information is located and how ideas connect.
- 3
In a compare/contrast passage, differences are often in separate paragraphs or sections; look for signal words like "whereas," "in contrast," "while."
- 4
Problem-solution texts introduce a problem early and spend most of the passage addressing responses or remedies.
- 5
SAT questions may directly ask about structure ("how is the passage organized?") or implicitly require understanding it to answer other questions.
- ✗ Assuming a passage that mentions two things is automatically compare/contrast — the author might only be discussing how one influences the other (cause-effect).
- ✗ Identifying a minor organizational feature as the overall structure when the passage uses a different primary pattern.
SAT-style practice
A passage first describes declining bee populations globally, then discusses three scientific approaches to reversing the trend. The passage is primarily organized as:
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