Essay虽然是SAT的选考科目，但对于心怀名校梦的同学们来说，Essay仍然起着举足轻重的作用。譬如，一些名校会明确说明“Essay至少要达到‘6.6.6’”。SAT Essay要求学生在50分钟之内读完一篇650-750字的议Essay，并完成一篇不少于550字的文章写作，这对于大部分学生来说都是一个巨大的挑战。问题主要存在于两方面：
一是阅读写作速度慢，缺乏限时训练。学生阅读速度和写作速度较慢，因此，很难在50分钟完成写作任务。对于这类学生来说，关键点在于提高阅读速度，多积累Essay常用表达，更重要的是多进行限时练习。
个人认为，这一点完全可以通过勤奋练习来解决。我的教学过程中发现，只要用心上课跟着老师要求来，课后作业按要求完成的同学，基本上都可以攻克这一问题。
二是Analysis写作有量无质，没掌握高分要领。文章限时写完了，也写了满满的三页，但是分数却达不到，甚至在真考中有的同学出现“6.2.6”或“447”等很极端的情况。没错，同学们普遍存在的问题就是不知道如何进行analysis部分写作，不知道analysis部分的高分点在何处。
不少同学反映：“我觉得我写的挺好的，为什么才4呢？”很多同学觉得：“我的作文并不比他差，为什么她是7而我是4呢？”在此，Kitty老师用本次8月考试的几个典型范例跟大家讲讲‘447’、‘756’和‘767’的区分在哪里，主要以Essay写作 essay.lxws.net中的难点即“reasoning主体段”的写作为例分析各个分数段的特点，以及如何使analysis破6。
所选文章均是真考文章，具有很高借鉴意义，希望大家能够仔细体会其中差异，并将其运用在自己的Essay写作中。
1.首先给大家看两个高分sample中的reasoning论述部分，这两个sample的“analysis”均达到了6。
1）First and foremost,the author establishes a rigorous reasoning structure to
persuade his audience that the new documentation should be abolished.In the beginning,he employs his own experience to introduce the beauty and value of the ivory,giving the audience some background information.After introducing the use and importance of the ivory,the author immediately claims that the new documentation is harmful to the ivory trade.In paragraph 7,he uses the word“however”to alarm the audience that he is going to tell something important and the audience should pay more attention to it.After that,in paragraph 7 to 9,the author illustrates some bad influence of the documentation so that he can further support his argument that the documentation should be banned.At last,he points out that there must be some other solutions to protect the elephants instead of eliminating all ivory trade the document suggests.So he finally appeals to the emotion of the audience and reiterate his viewpoint that the document should be abolished.
2）To begin with,the author utilizes the well-connected logical structure to
organize his passage to be convincing enough while reasoning the audience.The author firstly uses his young experience with his father to introduce that the author found an extraordinary beautiful things–ivory,which emphasizes the value,beauty,decorating of the beauty.In paragraph 7,the author alludes a phenomenon that elephants are largely damaged because of the great demand of ivory,so official needs to do something to solve the problem.Then,the author uses counterargument to demonstrate his views.From paragraph 8 to 9,the author states a common understanding about the regulation with the future.However,from paragraph 10 to 11,the author corrects the misunderstanding and explains that proposal is unrealistic and unproven and it will cause more serious problems.At the end of the passage,the author uses beautiful language to encourage people to devote to protect elephants and builds the relationship between citizens and the problem.With the logical reasoning flow,the author connects the standpoint and evidence by using logical structures,and reinforces his argument.
总地来说，这两个reasoning段落的写作是较为成功的，都拿到了6以上的分数。两个作文的共同亮点在于：较好地把文章框架思路和内在逻辑梳理了出来，并且表达过程中能够体现不同claim之间的联系。
当然，虽然这两个Essay在真考中都拿到了6以上，但就其主体段来说，仍各有千秋。例如，“1）”中前半部分的分析写得更好一些，作者不仅对文章内容进行高度概括总结，而且强调了其逻辑和前后行文的关系。
如“giving the audience some background information”就充分说明了前几段的作用，更能体现与下文的联系，从而有效地避免了简单的summary，相比而言，“2）”就少了这个点。
但是，写作的后半部分则“2）”明显优于“1）”。在sample“1)”中，作者写到“After that,in paragraph 7 to 9,the author illustrates some bad influence of the documentation so that he can further support his argument that the documentation should be banned”，只是对文章内容的一个简单概括，不能很清晰的体现文章的逻辑，而sample“2)”却分析地更精细，作者写道“In paragraph 7,the author alludes a phenomenon that elephants are largely damaged because of the great demand of ivory,so official needs to do something to solve the problem.Then,the author uses counterargument to demonstrate his views.”具体到这几个段落是counterargument的关系，并在后文具体进行分析，更符合“reasoning”的要求。
所以，简单来说，reasoning就是宏观的能够将论点串起来的一条线。对于Logical structure的写作，同学们在写作过程中一定要避免将其写成summary，虽然两者有相似之处。对于logical structure来说，除了需要将文章根据内容划分为几个部分之外，还需要在每一部分解释之后更多地讲述其“role”，即逻辑，与前后idea之前的关系等。比如，开头段可以写其“setting up the baseline”等，而绝非仅仅内容上的概括。
2.下面我们来看一个比较典型的例子，“logical structure”部分论述比较详细具体，实考中reading部分也高达7，但是analysis部分却未能达到6，而是5。
The author utilizes logical structure to lead the audience to accept his argument.The author establishes his article in two steps.At the beginning of the passage,the author explains a personal experience.The story is about the author immigrates to United States with his parents when he was a child.Then he recognized the ivory and started to collect ivory objects.However,he started to oppose this behavior.The personal experience can lead audience fill into consider,a ivory collector advocate to protect the elephants,which will help the author to establish his argument.In the second part,the author explains several phenomenon of killing elephants and ivory trade.The author illustrates that there are only few people oppose the ivory collection,and the trade and movement in the United States of ivory objects are required unimpeachable.Because the implement of protecting rules in unrealistic and unproven,the condition of elephants will be more and more dangerous.The audience will consider that the logical structure is acceptable,so the author can establish his argument that new regulations that require detailed documentation for all ivory objects in the United States should be detailed.
先说下这个分析中的亮点部分：
第一，考生较为完整地总结了整个文章的内容，具体详细，主要内容都有讲到。
第二，“At the beginning of”,“then”,“however,he started”这些逻辑词语的使用可以从某些程度上体现文章的逻辑与内在联系。但是，也存在一定的问题：
第一，简单地将文章分为两部分，正如考生写到“establishes his article in two steps”，有点过于简单粗暴了，尤其是第二部分，大家看出，作者先讲述这个法案的影响以及反对此法案的原因，并且用了一个counterargument去论证作者观点。因此，在logical structure的写作过程中，建议同学们尽量把框架梳理更加清晰一些，才能更好地体现文章内在逻辑。
第二，这位考生也存在和上述sample“2)”前半部分论述相似的问题，只是简单的总结概括，段落的具体作用未能得到有效地体现。 |
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