SAT® · Reading and Writing: Information and Ideas
The Connector That Constrains the Ending
A connector word before a blank is an instruction about direction, not just style: it tells you whether the ending must agree with, reverse, or explain the evidence already given.
Every blank sits inside a logical structure, and the connector right before it names that structure. 'Therefore' means the ending must keep pointing the same way the evidence already pointed: if a passage builds toward cleaner air, 'therefore' demands an ending that confirms cleaner air, not one that complicates it. 'However' means the opposite: whatever direction the sentences before it were leaning, the ending has to bend away from that lean, usually by introducing a limit, exception, or problem. 'Because' is different from both: it doesn't continue or reverse a direction, it supplies the missing reason that the rest of the sentence depends on.
Picture each as an arrow. 'Therefore' draws an arrow that keeps going straight. 'However' draws an arrow that turns back. 'Because' draws an arrow pointing backward from the main clause into the blank, since the blank is the cause and the main clause is the effect. Once you see which arrow the connector demands, you can throw out any answer choice that draws the wrong shape, even if that choice is well written or factually plausible.
This sits right next to questions about central ideas and evidence because the connector is often the fastest way to find the logical shape before you even weigh the content of each choice. A student who reads the connector first narrows four options to one or two before the content comparison even starts, which is the same skill tested when a blank sits mid-sentence: the arrow still points toward whatever clause depends on it, even if that clause comes after the blank rather than ending the text.
Key terms
- Connector
- A word like therefore, however, or because that signals the logical relationship between a sentence and what follows it.
- Continuation connector
- A word such as therefore that requires the ending to keep pointing in the same direction as the prior evidence.
- Contrast connector
- A word such as however that requires the ending to turn away from the direction the prior evidence was leaning.
- Causal connector
- A word such as because that requires the blank to supply the reason the main clause depends on.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does 'therefore' force an ending to point the same direction the evidence was already pointing?
- How it worksWalk me through the three arrow shapes that however, therefore and because each demand of a conclusion.
- Worked exampleFind the required ending shape for 'the results were striking; however, ______' after two sentences of praise.
- Going furtherWhat changes about a conclusion when the blank sits mid-sentence rather than at the very end of a text?
Check yourself
End of topic.