新SAT作文改革之重要变化及算分规则

——新东方北美VIP项目SAT作文组

改革后的SAT作文，将检测学生是否可以熟练运用阅读、写作和分析能力应对大学学习。作文部分要求学生在理解一篇高质量文章的基础上，运用逻辑推理和来源于原文本的证据，书写一篇说服力强、表述及思路清晰的分析性作文。考生需要阅读一篇文章，解释作者如何构建议论以形成说服力，并采用来自原文的证据支持自己的解释。针对备考新SAT作文的考生，以下两点需要诸位知悉：

一、重要变革
改革后的SAT作文将在以下方面与现行SAT作文不同：
1. 现行SAT作文的考试时间是25分钟，而改革后是50分钟；
2. 考生不再被要求同意或反对一个话题的立场，或写出个人经历；
3. 作文不再是每个参加SAT考生的必考项；学院和大学将决定是否要求考生提交SAT作文分数；
4. 考生SAT作文的三项能力得分（阅读、分析和写作）将会被在各自维度内单独计分（而非三项分数加总在一起合并为一个分数），而且与考试中的其它科目分开计分。

二、算分规则

改革后的SAT作文依然会由两位阅卷人评判。每位阅卷人将以1-4分来分别评阅考生作文中的阅读、分析和写作三个维度。每个维度的得分分别相加后都会在2-8分区间内。例如，经两位阅卷人评阅后，一位考生的阅读、分析和写作三个方面的得分分别为3-2-3和3-2-3，最终将三个维度内分数分别相加后，考生的作文得分为6-4-6，即阅读维度得分6分，分析维度得分4分，写作维度得分6分。 

选取官方提供的学生作文样本供大家参考。下面的作文在一位阅卷老师审阅后，得分为3/2/3，即阅读3分，分析2分，写作3分。

Sample Student Essay: 3/2/3

In the article “Why literature matters” (2005) Dana Gioia expresses that American arts have changed and that many people are beginning to no longer read. He argues that intellectual abilities are decreacing. Gioia expresses reasoning, includes evidence, and establishes word choice. His purpose is to encourage more people to begin reading again in order to improve their intellectual level. He targets everyone essentially as his audience.          

Gioia expresses reasoning in paragraph five when he states that the decline in reading will lead to consequences and people will have a lower set of mental skills. He specifically states “the ability to create artistic and emotional ability....to craft a satisfying narrative,” will disappear if people no longer read. This causes the audience to reflect on his point and want to be able to expand their talents.

Gioia also includes facts and statistics in paragraph six in order to capture the audience’s attention so they realize that the intellectual state of peoples minds is actually dropping. He states, “poor reading skills ranked second, 38 percent of employers complained that local schools inadequately taught reading comprehension.” Gioia inserts this statistic to grab people’s attention, such as people who teach in schools so that we are sure that children have good reading comprehension at an early age.

Finally Gioia displays proper word choice throughout the text to express the fact that having good reading comprehension will broaden your vocabulary. He uses the word intellectual multiple times for effect. Gioia expects that people will understand that they do need to read up on past events as well as other topics to be able to relate to society.

Gioia’s goal is to reach out to his audience and to encourage them to read, and apply their intellectual abilities to their everyday life. He has a sense of hope that people will express their abilities to grow and be fruitful with their social encounters.

This paper scored a 3/2/3.

Reading—3: This response demonstrates effective comprehension of Gioia’s text. The writer provides appropriate textual evidence (paraphrases and quotations) to capture both the main ideas of the passage (American arts have changed and that many people are beginning to no longer read and intellectual abilities are decreacing) and important details (He specifically states “the ability to create artistic and emotional ability....to craft a satisfying narrative,” will disappear if people no longer read). There are no substantive errors of fact or interpretation in this essay. On the whole, the writer demonstrates a complete understanding of Gioia’s argument, especially the relationship between declining literary reading and social awareness (or social encounters). Overall, this response demonstrates proficient reading comprehension.

Analysis—2: The writer demonstrates a limited understanding of the analytical task and offers only a partial analysis of how Gioia builds his argument. The writer identifies some analytical elements of Gioia’s text (such as reasoning, facts, and word choice) and attempts to describe how these elements function in the passage. However, throughout the response, the writer provides only single assertions about elements of argumentation in Gioia’s text (This causes the audience to reflect on his point and want to be able to expand their talents). Instances of analysis, most commonly found at the end of paragraphs, illustrate some understanding on the writer’s part of how Gioia builds his argument; however, the writer does not move beyond providing assertions into effective discussion or evaluation of how evidence, reasoning, or stylistic and persuasive elements are used to build the argument. Overall, this response demonstrates only partially successful analysis.

Writing—3: This response is mostly cohesive and demonstrates broadly effective use and control of language. Starting with an effective introductory paragraph that includes a clear central claim (Gioia expresses reasoning, includes evidence, and establishes word choice. His purpose is to encourage more people to begin reading again in order to improve their intellectual level), the writer structures his essay clearly, if formulaically, around the three points of reasoning, evidence, and word choice. Each paragraph remains on-topic, and there is a clear progression of ideas within paragraphs and across the essay as a whole. The response maintains a formal style and objective tone while demonstrating a variety of sentence structures. Although sentence structures are occasionally awkward (Gioia expects that people will understand that they do need to read up on past events as well as other topics to be able to relate to society), language errors do not detract significantly from the quality of writing. Overall, this response demonstrates proficient writing.

希望大家能够对新SAT的重要变化及算分规则有更清晰的了解，做出充分的备考准备。关于官方样题、范文及评分标准的解读，请大家继续关注我们的《新SAT作文改革之官方样题解析》系列的三篇文章。