Last year the College Board, the non-profit group that administers the SAT, reported that the number of students receiving instruction in composition and writing had plunged in the last decade, resulting in stagnant verbal scores, while math scores improved dramatically.

As a result, the SATs will be completely revised by 2005 by adding a writing section that includes an essay and multiple-choice questions focusing on grammar.

The SAT will also change the verbal section of the test to "critical reading" by dropping the analogy section and adding more reading comprehension questions. These changes will focus the test on the basic skill sets of reading and writing.

The new SAT will necessitate a new approach for teaching grammar to students. It will bring back the lost art of sentence diagramming as a key component of the SAT, as well as develop a foundation of skills necessary for college and future careers.

The concept of diagramming sentences in order to teach students grammar and sentence structure was developed in the 19th century by two Brooklyn professors. It used to be well understood that students could not express their creative writing abilities without a thorough understanding of the rules and conventions of written language.