To build a great SAT essay template, you need to know what it needs to include. Here are the five most important elements of any SAT essay:
1. An Introduction
The first impression the grader will have of your writing is your essay introduction. Don't just jump right into your thesis - try to ease into it with a general statement relating to the prompt before you get into the meat of your thesis statement. In your introduction, it's also good to briefly mention the examples you'll be using in your essay to support your thesis.
2. A Clear Thesis Statement
I've separated this out as its own point because it’s so important. You must express a point of view on the assignment; otherwise, you're not answering the essay question correctly.
I highly recommend taking a position one way or the other on the prompt, even if you think the truth is more in between the two extremes. The SAT essay is not designed to get you to reveal your inner beliefs. It is designed for you to demonstrate that you can back up a point of view with clear and coherent reasoning. Take this example prompt, for instance:
"Is it necessary to make mistakes even when it harms others?"
A bad thesis leaves you unclear on what the author's position is::
Sometimes people make mistakes, but they learn from them, so it’s good.
This thesis doesn’t take a point of view. It's just a (poorly punctuated) sentence about the topic in general. Compare to a good thesis for the same prompt:
It is necessary to make mistakes, even when those mistakes end up hurting others.
The above thesis takes a point of view on the prompt that is very clear. If you want more practice writing strong thesis statements, use our complete list of SAT essay prompts as inspiration.
3. Specific Examples That Support Your Point
To support your thesis, you'll need to draw on specific examples from history, literature, pop culture, personal experience, or any other area you can think of. Make sure to provide enough information for each example to make it clear how it is relevant to your thesis - and stop there. No need to write a book report about what happened in Animal Farm or the highlights of your high school football career - write enough that the reader can understand what your example is and be done.
4. Explanations of the Examples That Support Your Point
It isn't enough to just summarize specific examples and call it a day. In EACH example paragraph, you must not only include details about the example but also include an explanation of how each example supports your thesis. For instance, if you were using the 1977 movie "The Day The Music Died" as an example in your essay, you would have to not just describe what parts of the movie were relevant to your thesis, but also explain why the movie supports your thesis.
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5. A Conclusion
Your conclusion should restate your thesis and briefly mention the examples you wrote about in your essay (and how they supported your thesis). If you haven't done it already in your essay, this is NOT the place to write about a broader context, or to contradict yourself, or to add further examples you didn't discuss. End on a strong note.
What’s the Best SAT Essay Format?
Now that you know what has to be in your essay, how do you fit it all in? It’s not enough to just throw in a thesis and some examples on paper and expect what you write to be an essay. You need to be organized, and when you have to organize an essay under pressure, the generic five paragraph essay format is your friend.
Just as with every five-paragraph essay you've written at school, your SAT essay should have an introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs (one paragraph for each example you present), and a conclusion. Your thesis statement (your point of view on the prompt) should go in both your introduction and your conclusion, with slightly different wording. And even if you're just using one example to support your point, you’ll still probably need two body paragraphs for organizational purposes.
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