Main content
SAT
Unit 11: Lesson 3
Writing: Grammar- Writing: Setting Up Ideas — Video Lesson
- Setting up ideas | Quick guide
- Writing: Strong Support — Video lesson
- Strong support | Quick guide
- Writing: Relevant Information — Video lesson
- Relevant information | Quick guide
- Writing: Sequencing sentences — Video lesson
- Sequencing sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Words — Video lesson
- Transition words and phrases | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Sentences — Video Lesson
- Transition sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Introductions — Video lesson
- Writing: Conclusions — Video lesson
- Introductions and conclusions | Quick guide
- Writing: Interpreting Graphs and Data — Video lesson
- Interpreting graphs and data | Quick guide
- Writing: Precision — Video Lesson
- Precise word choice | Quick guide
- Writing: Concision — Video lesson
- Concision | Quick guide
- Writing: Formal and Informal Language — Video Lesson
- Writing: Formal vs. casual language — Example
- Formal vs. casual language | Quick guide
- Writing: Syntax — Example
- Writing: Sentence Fragments — Video Lesson
- Writing: Sentence Boundaries — Example 1
- Writing: Sentence boundaries — Example 2
- Sentence fragments | Quick guide
- Writing: Subordination and coordination — Example
- Writing: Combining Sentences — Video Lesson
- Linking clauses | Quick guide
- Writing: Parallel Structure — Video lesson
- Writing: Parallel structure — Example
- Parallel structure | Quick guide
- Writing: Modifier Placement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Modifier placement — Example
- Modifier placement | Quick guide
- Writing: Verb Tense and Mood — Video Lesson
- Writing: Shift in verb tense and mood — Example
- Verb tense and mood | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Clarity — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun clarity — Example
- Pronoun clarity | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun-antecedent agreement — Example
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 1
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 2
- Writing: It’s/Its Confusion — Video Lesson
- Confusion with "its" and "their" | Quick guide
- Writing: Subject-Verb Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Subject-verb agreement — Example
- Subject-verb agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Noun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Noun agreement — Basic example
- Noun agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Frequently Confused Words — Video Lesson
- Writing: Frequently confused words — Example
- Frequently confused words | Quick guide
- Writing: Conventional Expressions — Video Lesson
- Writing: Conventional expression — Example
- Conventional expressions | Quick guide
- Writing: Logical Comparison — Video Lesson
- Writing: Logical comparison — Example
- Logical comparison | Quick guide
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 1
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 2
- Writing: Commas — Video Lesson
- Commas | Quick guide
- Writing: Semicolons — Video Lesson
- Semicolons | Quick guide
- Writing: Colons — Video lesson
- Colons | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive Pronouns — Example
- Writing: Possessive Nouns — Video Lesson
- Making nouns possessive | Quick guide
- Writing: Items in a series — Example
- Writing: Punctuating Lists — Video Lesson
- Lists and punctuation | Quick guide
- Writing: Nonrestrictive and parenthetical elements — Example
- Writing: Nonessential Elements — Video Lesson
- Nonessential elements | Quick guide
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Writing: Formal and Informal Language — Video Lesson
David shows you how to approach a Formal and Informal Language question on the SAT Writing and Language test. Created by David Rheinstrom.
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Video transcript
- [Instructor] We are
looking at question 25 here. Let me start from the
beginning of the paragraph. "Towards the end of the 1400s, as the Renaissance was reaching its height in Florence, Italy, members of the city's powerful Wool Guild were celebrating their recently
completed city cathedral. It was a triumph that added
to Florence's reputation from sophistication and beauty. Yet the guild members were
eager to fancy it up even more." Okay, and our options are A, no change, fancy it up even more. B, make it look super rich. C, increase its splendor
and D, give it a wow factor. So from those choices, I can tell this is a question about
formal and casual language. Sometimes there's a prompt,
like choose the word or phrase that best maintains the style
and tone of the passage. And sometimes as with question
25 here, there's no prompt. And it's just a series of options. You're not looking to correct grammar or punctuation errors here. The key is to match the tone. And the fastest way to do that
is to suss out whether or not the passage is formal or casual. Does the author use slang
or informal expressions or is it closer to being
professional or technical? And the fun thing about these questions is that since you're
making a binary choice between formal or informal, you just have to find the odd one out. If you're looking for a
casual or an informal choice the other three options will
all use formal language. This isn't a precision
word choice question. You're not looking for a fine grain distinction and connotations. This here is the distinction between, "Hey dude!" and "Good evening, sir." Before we get to answering this question which I promise will take
us all of 10 seconds. A final tip, if you're
unfamiliar with a choice it's likely to be formal. Casual language is
familiar everyday language and it's much more likely
to reflect the way we speak than it is to reflect
the way that we write. So with that in mind, ask yourself, "What tone does this passage have?" If you want, take a
second to pause the video and see if you can answer
this question on your own. Okay, let's go for it. What's the tone of this
passage, what's it about? It's about Michelangelo from the title. This opening paragraph is about this new cathedral in
Florence, in the 15th century during the height of the Renaissance. It uses words like "triumph"
and "sophistication". Later in this paragraph
I see the word "adorn". These are formal terms. This is formal language. So I'm going to be looking
for a formal choice. Now our choices are: No change, which is fancy it up even more and fancy it up is a slangy'
casual informal expression. So I feel confident that
we can cross it off. B, make it look super rich,
super rich, also informal. It reflects casual spoken English. We can cross that off too. Choice C, increase its splendor. That's not informal, that's not casual. This is almost certainly our answer. D, give it a wow factor. Wow factor does not match the tone of sophistication or triumph. I could imagine somebody
on a real estate TV show saying this to describe a house, but I could not imagine them saying it to describe a cathedral. This is informal casual language. I'm going to cross it off. And that means that C is our answer. So what I did for this question was identify the tone of the passage, which is something you
might do unconsciously, whether it's on a practice
test or on test day itself. And then all I had to do
was go through the choices with a simple yes or no. Is it formal or informal? Only one choice matched
the rest of the passage. And that's the choice I went with.