SAT Reading Strategy

Rhetorical Strategies on the SAT

How to Decode What Authors Are Really Doing

Track the author’s logic, locate evidence quickly, and sharpen your reasoning.

8 Min Read

Reading Skill

Evidence-First

5 Practice Qs

Anchor every answer in the exact line that proves it. If you cannot point to the words, it is not the answer.

Read the question, then scan for the line that directly supports a choice.
Match wording, not vibe: synonyms are fine, new ideas are not.
If two answers feel close, eliminate the one with any extra claim.

Rhetorical strategy questions measure whether you can identify how an author constructs an argument, not merely what that argument says. They require you to step back from what a passage says and examine the specific tools the writer chose to make you think, feel, or act a certain way. That shift in perspective, from passive reader to active analyst, is one of the highest-value skills you can develop for test day.

The good news? Authors use a surprisingly small set of moves. Once you learn to recognize them, these questions become some of the most predictable on the test. This post will walk you through what rhetorical strategies are, exactly how the SAT tests them, and a reliable step-by-step method for finding the right answer. We'll work through five practice questions that build from foundational to challenging. By the end, you'll have a clear framework you can apply every time you see a rhetorical analysis question.

What Are Rhetorical Strategies?

A rhetorical strategy is any deliberate choice an author makes to influence their audience. Think of it this way: every passage you read on the SAT was written by a real person who wanted to accomplish something, persuade you of an argument, explain a phenomenon, challenge a prevailing view, or move you emotionally. The strategies are the specific tools they picked up to get the job done.

These tools generally fall into a few categories:

Appeals to credibility (ethos): The author references expert sources, cites data, or establishes their own authority to make you trust them.
Appeals to emotion (pathos): The author uses vivid imagery, personal anecdotes, or charged language to make you feel something, urgency, sympathy, outrage.
Appeals to logic (logos): The author presents evidence, uses cause-and-effect reasoning, or builds a chain of logical steps to make you think their conclusion is inevitable.
Structural choices: The author arranges ideas in a deliberate order, comparison and contrast, problem then solution, concession then rebuttal, to guide your thinking.
Language and tone choices: The author selects specific words, adjusts formality, or shifts tone to shape how you receive the message.

You don't need to memorize a long list of rhetorical devices. What matters is that you can name what the author is doing and explain why they're doing it. That's the core skill the SAT is after.

How the SAT Tests This Skill

Rhetorical strategy questions on the SAT come in several forms, but they all revolve around the same idea: why did the author make this particular choice? You'll see question stems like:

"The author includes the example in the text primarily to..."
"The main rhetorical effect of the highlighted sentence is to..."
"Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence?"
"The author's use of the word '[specific word]' primarily serves to..."

On the Digital SAT, these live in the Craft and Structure domain, especially under Text Structure and Purpose. The texts are short, so the question usually zooms in on a sentence, phrase, or example rather than an entire paragraph.

The SAT designs the wrong answers around a few predictable traps. Learning to spot them is just as important as knowing the right approach:

The "what" trap: This answer describes what the passage says (content) rather than what the author is doing (strategy). It sounds true but doesn't answer the question.
The overreach trap: This answer describes a rhetorical effect that goes far beyond what the passage actually achieves, for instance, claiming a brief statistic "completely disproves the opposing argument."
The wrong audience trap: This answer attributes a purpose to the author that doesn't match the passage's tone or context, like saying a formal scientific passage is trying to "entertain the reader."
The half-right trap: This answer correctly identifies the strategy but misidentifies the purpose, or vice versa. It's partially true, which makes it tempting.

When you hit a rhetorical strategy question, follow these four steps. This method works whether the question is about a single word, a sentence, or an entire paragraph.

Identify the Author's Overall Purpose
Before you can analyze a specific choice, you need the big picture. Ask yourself: What is this author trying to accomplish in this passage? Are they arguing for a position? Explaining a concept? Comparing two perspectives? Your answer becomes the lens through which every rhetorical choice makes sense. If you skip this step, you'll evaluate individual sentences in isolation, and that's exactly when the SAT's traps catch you.
Zoom In on the Specific Element
Now focus on the exact part the question asks about, the sentence, the example, the word choice, the paragraph. Reread it carefully and ask: What is this piece doing? Is it providing evidence? Introducing a counterargument? Creating an emotional response? Defining a key term? Try to describe its function in your own words before you look at the answer choices.
Connect the Piece to the Purpose
This is the critical step most students skip. Link the specific element back to the author's overall goal. A statistic isn't just "providing evidence" in the abstract, it's providing evidence to support the author's claim that renewable energy is cost-effective. An anecdote isn't just "adding a personal touch", it's making an abstract policy debate feel concrete and human. The SAT rewards answers that capture both the strategy and the purpose together.
Eliminate Using the Trap Patterns
Now check each answer choice against the traps you know. Cross out any answer that describes content instead of function ("what" trap), exaggerates the effect (overreach trap), misreads the tone (wrong audience trap), or gets only half the picture right (half-right trap). In most cases, you'll be left with one answer that accurately names the strategy and correctly connects it to the author's purpose.

Practice Rhetorical Strategies with SAT-Style Questions

Note: The passages below are original, SAT-style constructions for practice; any names or details are fictionalized.

Let's put this method to work. Each question below features a short passage and asks you to identify the rhetorical strategy at play. Start with the first two to build your confidence, then push into the more challenging ones. Remember: read the passage, identify the purpose, zoom in, and connect before you look at the choices.

Question 1

Passage

In a recent report, the World Health Organization noted that air pollution contributes to an estimated seven million premature deaths annually. Dr. Maria Neira, director of the WHO's Department of Public Health, stated that "the evidence is clear and compelling, air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk of our time."

Skill: Rhetorical Strategies and Techniques easy

The author includes the quotation from Dr. Maria Neira primarily to

Question 2

Passage

When I was eleven years old, my family's home was destroyed by a flood that swept through our valley without warning. I remember standing in ankle-deep mud where our kitchen had been, holding a single waterlogged photograph of my grandmother. That image, small, ruined, irreplaceable, is why I have spent the last twenty years advocating for stronger flood-preparedness infrastructure.

Skill: Rhetorical Strategies and Techniques easy

The author's description of the waterlogged photograph primarily serves to

Question 3

Passage

Proponents of year-round schooling argue that it eliminates the "summer slide," the well-documented loss of academic skills that occurs during extended breaks. However, a 2019 meta-analysis published in the Review of Educational Research found that the differences in achievement between year-round and traditional calendar students were statistically negligible across all grade levels and subject areas tested.

Skill: Rhetorical Strategies and Techniques medium

The function of the second sentence in relation to the first is to

Question 4

Passage

The octopus, that gelatinous, boneless marvel of evolution, can unscrew jars from the inside, navigate complex mazes after a single demonstration, and recognize individual human faces, feats that would challenge many vertebrates with brains several times larger. Yet despite mounting evidence of cephalopod intelligence, current animal welfare legislation in most countries classifies octopuses alongside oysters and clams.

Skill: Rhetorical Strategies and Techniques medium

Which choice best describes the rhetorical effect of the author's juxtaposition in this passage?

Question 5

Passage

We might comfort ourselves with the thought that deforestation is a distant problem, confined to remote rainforests we will never visit. But consider this: the Amazon basin generates roughly twenty percent of the world's oxygen and drives weather patterns that determine rainfall across four continents. When we lose those forests, we do not lose someone else's trees. We lose our own atmosphere.

Skill: Rhetorical Strategies and Techniques hard

The author's use of the shift from "someone else's trees" to "our own atmosphere" primarily serves to

Key Takeaways for Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical strategy questions ask "how" and "why," not "what": The SAT wants you to identify the author's tools and purpose, not just restate the content. Train yourself to think about function, not summary.
Always start with the big picture: Knowing the author's overall purpose gives you a framework for evaluating every specific choice. A detail that looks random in isolation makes perfect sense when you understand the argument it supports.
Connect the strategy to the purpose: The strongest answers on the SAT name both the technique (what the author is doing) and the goal (why they're doing it). An answer that captures only one half is usually a trap.
Learn the four traps: The "what" trap, the overreach trap, the wrong audience trap, and the half-right trap appear again and again. Recognizing them lets you eliminate wrong answers quickly and confidently.
You already have this skill: Every time you notice a commercial trying to make you feel something, or a friend structuring an argument to convince you, you're doing rhetorical analysis. The SAT is simply asking you to do it on paper.

Conclusion: The Core Rule for Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical analysis is one of those skills that feels abstract until it clicks, and then it changes how you read everything. The four-step method you practiced here (identify the purpose, zoom in, connect, eliminate) gives you a repeatable system for questions that many students find intimidating. But the real secret is this: the SAT only uses a handful of rhetorical moves. Authors cite experts, tell stories, present counterarguments, shift pronouns, and choose vivid words. Once you've seen each move a few times, you start recognizing them instantly.

As you continue practicing, pay attention to the rhetorical choices in everything you read, news articles, opinion pieces, even textbook introductions. Notice when an author uses a statistic to build credibility. Notice when they tell an anecdote to make you care. Notice when they concede a point only to pivot against it. Every time you catch one of these moves in the wild, you're strengthening the exact skill the SAT is testing.

You don't need to memorize a list of Greek terms or literary devices. You need to be the reader who sees not just what was written, but why it was written that way. That's the reader who earns these points, and that's the reader you're becoming.

About the Instructor

Thomas Meli

Founder, Deep Test Prep

"Viewing the SAT as a transformative rite of passage, my approach builds self-awareness, sharpens critical thinking, and fosters a love of learning that supports students far beyond test day."

With over 20 years of teaching and 500+ hours of training in compassionate communication, Thomas uses scientifically proven methods to help students target and achieve their SAT goals.