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Cross-Text Connections: SAT Reading and Writing notes
Cross-Text Connections questions give you two short texts on the same topic and ask how the authors or researchers would respond to, agree with, or differ from each other.
Study it with worked examples and 8 practice questionsPractise Cross-Text Connections questions
What this topic tests
Each question has a Text 1 and a Text 2, usually about the same research question, artist or historical claim. Often one text makes a claim and the other brings new evidence or a different view. Sometimes the two texts come at the topic from different angles and agree more than they first seem to.
Most questions ask how one author or researcher would respond to the other text, often to an underlined claim. Others ask what both would agree on, or what the main difference between their views is. Either way, the answer is never something new. It comes from putting together what each text actually says.
The best approach is to sum up each text in one sentence before you look at the choices, then decide how they relate. Does Text 2 agree, disagree, or say “yes, but”? With that relationship clear in your head, most of the wrong choices fall away quickly.
Key ideas
- Sum up each text in one plain sentence before you read the choices.
- Name the relationship: full agreement, full disagreement, or partial agreement (“yes, but not always”). Partial agreement is very common, especially in hard questions.
- Notice whose view the question asks for. “The author of Text 2” and “the researchers described in Text 2” can be different people, and some questions ask how Text 1 would respond to Text 2.
- The right answer must be supported by the texts. Choices that bring in new topics, like other countries, genres or methods, are wrong even if they sound reasonable.
- Watch for overstatement. A text that says a claim is not always true doesn't think it is never true.
- Two authors who disagree about why something happens can still agree that it happened. “Both would agree” answers often hide in that shared fact.
The 4 kinds of Cross-Text Connections question
Sorted from every Cross-Text Connections question in the site's bank: each kind keeps coming up, and has a method that works every time.
1. How Text 2 responds to Text 1
How to spot it. The question asks how the author of Text 2, or the researchers described there, would most likely respond to, characterize or regard a claim in Text 1, often an underlined one. Text 2 usually brings a new study, a counterexample or a wider point of view.
How to answer it:
- Pin down the exact claim in Text 1 (the underlined part, if there is one) and put it in your own words.
- Find what Text 2 says about the same issue, and why: new evidence, an exception, or a bigger picture.
- Decide the stance: agree, disagree, or “yes, but.” Predict a one-line response in Text 2's voice.
- Pick the choice that matches both the stance and the reason. Cross out choices that are too extreme or that bring in things neither text discusses.
The trap. Choosing a response that is too extreme. When Text 2 gives a counterexample, its author usually means the claim is not always true, not that it is completely false. Also watch for choices with the right attitude but the wrong reason.
2. Apply one text's idea to the other's case
How to spot it. One text gives a general idea, rule or model, and the other describes a specific situation, study or example. The question asks what the author with the general idea would say about the other text's case, or asks you to use one text's model to explain the other's results. Watch for questions that run backward, asking how Text 1 would respond to Text 2.
How to answer it:
- Decide which text holds the general idea and which holds the specific case.
- State the general idea as a simple rule, in the form “when X happens, Y follows.”
- Run the specific case through that rule. Does the case fit the rule, break it, or show a problem the rule avoids?
- Choose the answer that follows from the rule, not from your own opinion about the case.
The trap. Answering from the wrong point of view. Wrong choices often say something sensible about the case that the author with the general idea never says, such as recommending a fix or bringing in a new reason. Stick to what the general idea predicts.
3. What both would agree on
How to spot it. The question asks which statement both authors, or the people described in both texts, would most likely agree with. The two texts may disagree about their main point, which makes the shared ground harder to see.
How to answer it:
- Sum up each text in one sentence.
- Look for a fact or idea that shows up in both, even if they word it differently or disagree about the reason behind it.
- Test each choice against Text 1, then separately against Text 2. It must be supported by both.
- Cross out any choice that only one text supports, that either text contradicts, or that neither text mentions.
The trap. Choosing a statement that only one text supports. These choices are written to sound like the main idea of one of the texts. Test every choice against each text separately, and remember that an author who disagrees with part of a statement won't agree with the whole thing.
4. Difference between the views
How to spot it. The question asks for “a difference in how the author of Text 1 and the author of Text 2 view” something, or “how Text 1 and Text 2 relate to each other.” Each choice is a two-part statement, one part for each text.
How to answer it:
- Give each text a short label for its stance on the shared topic, such as “useful” and “limiting,” or “optimistic” and “cautious.”
- Check the Text 1 half of every choice and cross out any that misstate Text 1.
- Check the Text 2 half of the choices that are left and cross out any that misstate or exaggerate Text 2.
- The answer must get both halves right and describe a real difference about the same issue.
The trap. Choices where one half is accurate and the other is exaggerated or invented. For example, Text 2 may say an approach misses some patterns, and a wrong choice will claim Text 2 believes the opposite pattern is true. Check each half on its own.
Practise Cross-Text Connections
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