SAT · Question-type guide 4 · 4 min read
SAT Craft and Structure questions
How to answer digital SAT Craft and Structure questions: words in context, text structure and purpose, and cross-text connections, with original examples.
What the domain covers
Craft and Structure is the largest Reading and Writing domain, at roughly 28% of the section. It asks how a text works: what its words mean in context, why the author wrote it the way they did, and how two texts on the same subject relate to each other.
There are three skills in this domain:
- Words in Context
- Text Structure and Purpose
- Cross-Text Connections
Words in Context
These questions give you a short passage with a word or phrase either highlighted or replaced by a blank. You choose the word that best fits, or the meaning that best matches how a word is used.
How to approach them:
- Cover the choices and read the full sentence, plus the one before and after.
- Put your own word in the blank. It does not need to be elegant, only accurate.
- Check the direction of the sentence. Words such as although, however and despite signal contrast; because, thus and indeed signal support.
- Choose the option that matches your word in meaning and in tone.
An example of our own. A passage says that a new bridge design was praised by engineers, although its cost made city officials ______ about approving it. The contrast word although tells you the officials felt the opposite of praise: something like hesitant. A choice such as eager fails the direction test; reluctant fits.
Common words often appear with less common meanings. "Check" can mean to restrain; "qualified" can mean limited. Always test the meaning in the sentence, not the first meaning that comes to mind.
Text Structure and Purpose
These questions ask what a passage, or one sentence within it, is doing. Typical prompts ask for the main purpose of the text or the function of a particular sentence.
How to approach them:
- Describe the passage in a few plain words: "introduces a theory, then gives a problem with it", or "describes an artist, then explains why critics disagreed about her".
- For a single sentence, ask how it connects to what comes before and after. Does it give an example, raise an objection, offer a cause, or state a conclusion?
- Prefer answers that use verbs of purpose (to explain, to challenge, to illustrate) that match the passage's actual move.
Watch for: answers that describe a detail correctly but miss the purpose, and answers that are too broad, claiming the passage "surveys the history of a field" when it only describes one study.
Cross-Text Connections
Here you read two short texts, often by different writers, on a related subject. The question asks how the author of one text would most likely respond to a claim or finding in the other.
How to approach them:
- Read Text 1 and state its main claim in a few words.
- Read Text 2 and do the same.
- Identify the relationship: does Text 2 agree, disagree, add a qualification or offer a different explanation?
- Answer from the perspective the question names, and only from what that author actually says.
An example of our own. Text 1 argues that a bird species migrates earlier because spring now arrives earlier. Text 2 reports that the same species also migrates earlier in years with unusually strong tail winds. The author of Text 2 would most likely say that Text 1's explanation is incomplete, not that it is wrong. Choices claiming total rejection usually go too far.
Skills that help across the domain
| Skill | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Summarizing a passage in one line | Makes purpose and structure questions much quicker |
| Spotting signal words | Shows direction in context questions and relationships in paired texts |
| Noticing hedged language | Separates "suggests" from "proves" and avoids extreme choices |
| Keeping two viewpoints apart | Prevents mixing up which author said what |
Common mistakes
- Picking a word that sounds sophisticated rather than one that fits the sentence's logic.
- Choosing a purpose that matches one sentence instead of the whole passage.
- Assuming two texts must disagree completely. Many pairs differ only in emphasis or scope.
- Bringing in knowledge of the topic instead of relying on what the texts say.
Exam tip: Words in Context questions are usually among the first in a module and are often quick. Answer them carefully but briskly, and bank the time for longer questions later.
How to practice
Read short, well-edited pieces such as science news reports, book reviews and opinion columns. After each paragraph, write one line saying what it does. Once a week, find two pieces that take different views on one subject and note exactly where they agree and where they part company. That habit maps directly onto this domain.
Check yourself
- Name the three skills in Craft and Structure.
- What should you do before looking at the choices in a Words in Context question?
- What is the difference between a passage's detail and its purpose?
- When two texts discuss the same topic, what kinds of relationship can they have besides total disagreement?
Find practice material and the rest of this series on the SAT hub.