ACT - Style & Rhetoric

On the ACT test, _____________ choices are preferred over wordy choices, even if the sentence "sounds smarter."

Two of these are solid advice for taking the ACT:

• If it doesn't fit, you must omit! (i.e., if the sentence seems out of place or irrelevant, take it out)

• When you're stressed, quit the test! (i.e, just fill in your letter of the day and take a nap)

• When in doubt, take it out! (i.e., if you're on the fence about whether a sentence is necessary or not, delete it)

• When in doubt, scream and shout! (and then see what Mrs. Lund does)

On the ACT (and everywhere, actually), your sentences should:

• make sense.

• be grammatically correct.

• express a complete thought.

• fit the tone of the overall passage.

You should show off your worldliness by using the following words as much as possible during the ACT:

• sus

• none of these

• bruh

• yep

• gonna

The ACT may ask you to select a word or phrase that best expresses an emotion or particular idea.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Sometimes the ACT will offer you several options and ask you to pick the BEST one. This means the rest are grammatically or otherwise incorrect.

• TRUE

• FALSE

For many questions on the ACT English test, you will need to understand the connotation, or implied meaning, of a text in order to choose the appropriate answer.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Why you always in a

• classroom?

• mood?

• mask?

• school?

Look at the underlined sentence after the number 8. The writer is considering deleting it. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?

• Kept, because it provides supporting evidence about the benefits of walking.

• Kept, because it provides an additional example of a community stakeholder with whom transportation planners work.

• Deleted, because it blurs the paragraph's focus on the community stakeholders with whom transportation planners work.

• Deleted, because it doesn't provide specific examples of what the numerous benefits of walking are.

Which of the following provides a description of the cacti that is most consistent with the rest of the sentence?

• NO CHANGE

• spiky & prickly

• dangerous to touch

• stark & domineering