How to write a good act essay

How to write a good act essay

A large enough portion of the student population already struggles to maintain passing grades when taught in English, and adding other languages would likely add to that how to write a good act essay. Later, we'll look at these differences in the context of a sample essay. We can now buy goods at a variety of stores without the help of a human cashier. org, these areas are as follows:. If you've chosen only to discuss the relationship between your perspective and one other perspective, then this second body paragraph is optional.

ACT with Writing: Sample Prompt

ACT StrategiesACT Writing. There is no part of the ACT more mysterious to students than the essay, and very few people seem to know what exactly the ACT is looking for in a "perfect" essay particularly since September was the new ACT Writing test's debut. Luckily, we've got the expertise to give you some insight into how the essay works and what you can do to push your score those extra few points up the scale. Whether you're trying to impress your dream school or just want to boost your ACT score, the essay is a great thing to work on. Some of the tips below stand alone, while others are part of larger categories that have been assembled based our ACT expertise.

Important: If you haven't read these two other ACT Writing guides beforetake a minute and read them now:. The ACT Writing Rubric: Analysis, Explanation, and Strategies. How to Write an ACT Essay, Step by Step, how to write a good act essay. If you're already scoring an 8 or above in every domain on practice or real ACT essays, you have a shot at completely nailing what the graders want, represented by a score of 12, with a little practice. But there's how to write a good act essay important to remember in your quest for perfection: on the ACT essay, a 12 is not always achievable.

We've got good news and bad news for those of you who are determined to know how to get a 12 on the ACT essay. You'll have to practice this specific essay. How to write a good act essay perfect ACT essay is like a puzzle that happens to be in writing form—it can be mastered, but to do it well and completely every time requires a few month's practice. Knowing how to write other kinds of essays will only help you a limited amount. Because the whole essay must be written in 40 minutes, getting a 12 requires some luck. You have to pick a thesis and think of relevant and convincing evidence to support it before you can even start writing, so a lot depends on how quickly you can decided on a point of view and relevant support for whatever the prompt happens to be.

And because perfect-scoring essays are almost always at least two pages longyou won't have any time to spare. Because the essay is so formulaic, it's always possible to get at least a 10 in each domain. And, on top of this, no college worth its salt is going to base your college admission on getting those last two points on an essay you had to write in 40 minutes. The goal, really, is to show that you can write a decent essay in that time, and a 10 in each domain shows that just as well as a 12 does. If how to write a good act essay asked the ACT what the difference is between a 10 and a 12 ACT essay, they would direct us to their scoring criteria replicated in the table below that describes the difference between the 5 and 6 essay scores in each domain.

As you may already know, a total domain score of 12 comes from two readers separately giving your essay a 6; the four domain scores are then averaged to calculate your total essay score of We've marked the differences between the 5 and 6 criteria in bold. Later, we'll look at these differences in the context of a sample essay. The 6 essay gives a more specific and logically precise context. The thesis and argument show a deep understanding of the issue, how to write a good act essay, while the analysis not only mentions, but also inspects the complexities and implications of the issue.

Now we'll look at a sample essay and how it demonstrates the characteristics of the 6 essay above. First, let's look at the prompt:. Many of the goods and services we depend on daily are now supplied by intelligent, automated machines rather than human beings. Robots build cars and other goods on assembly lines, where once there were human workers. Many of our phone conversations are now conducted not with people but with sophisticated technologies. We can now buy goods at a variety of stores without the help of a human cashier. Automation is generally seen as a sign of progress, but what is lost when we replace humans with machines?

Given the accelerating variety and prevalence of intelligent machines, it is worth examining the implications and meaning of their presence in our lives. Perspective One: What we lose with the replacement of people by machines is some part of our own humanity. Even our mundane daily encounters no longer require from us basic courtesy, respect, and tolerance for other people. Perspective Two: Machines are good at low-skill, repetitive jobs, and at high-speed, extremely precise jobs. In both cases they work better how to write a good act essay humans. This efficiency leads to a more how to write a good act essay and progressive world for everyone. Perspective Three: Intelligent machines challenge our long-standing ideas about what humans are or can be. This is good because it pushes both humans and machines toward new, unimagined possibilities.

Now, read the ACT essay example belowand try to notice how it meets the criteria in the table above. From the simplest system of pulleys and ropes to the most complex supercomputer in the world today, machines have had and continue to have a profound influence on the development of humanity. Whether it is taking over monotonous, low-skill tasks or removing that messy "human" element from our day-to-day interactions, machines have answered the call to duty. The increasing prevalence of intelligent machines challenges us to change long held beliefs about our limitations and to continue forward to new and even more advanced possibilities.

One common argument against the increased presence of machines in our day to day lives is that machines leach from us our basic humanity. Indeed, certain people whose only social interactions are anonymous text-based conversations with other anonymous Internet forum dwellers over computers may begin to lose basic human courtesy and empathy. This is crystal clear with a glance at the comments section of any popular news article. Yet machines are also capable of enhancing people's abilities to communicate. An example of this can be found in Tod Machover's lab at MIT, where breakthroughs in neurotechnology have made it possible for quadripalegics to manipulate text on computers with their minds. Such interactions would be impossible without the existence of intelligent machines.

Therefore, I must disagree with Perspective one. Rather than losing part of our own humanity to machines, we instead make that most-essential-to-humanity of acts, communication, possible. Another school of thought Perspective Two argues that machines are good at how and high skill repetitive jobs, which leads to a more prosperous and progressive world for everyone. This can be seen in the human work hours that are saved daily with automated phone menus. Before intelligent machines made automatic telephone menus possible, every customer service call ate up valuable employee time.

Now, menus allow callers to choose the number that best suits their needs, routing calls to appropriate destinations without the need for human employees to waste time explaining for the hundredth time that "our business hours are 10am-6pm. In terms of automated telephone menus, this means that sometimes, no menu options are correct. While automated systems may take the burden off of human workers, it is a mistake to think how to write a good act essay they can replace humans entirely. A final example will demonstrate how intelligent machines challenge longstanding ideas and push us towards new, unimagined possibilities perspective three. At my high school, all students had to take diagnostic tests in every main subject to figure out our strengths and weaknesses, and we were then sorted into class by skill level.

A truly remarkable pattern emerged as a result of this sorting: it turned out that every kid in my medium-level physics class was also a talented musician. The system that sorted us allowed us to find this underlying pattern, which changed the way our teachers taught us; we learned about mechanics through examples that were more relevant to our lives answering questions like "how many pulleys are needed to lift a piano? When before I had struggled with physics and simply assumed it was a subject I "wasn't good at," the intelligent, automated sorting system allowed me to discover that I could in fact understand mechanics if taught in the right way. This discovery pushed me toward previously unimagined academic possibilities. In conclusion, intelligent machines help us to move forward as a species to greater heights.

While machines can cause problems and may in some cases need human input to function optimally, it is how we react and adapt to the machines that is the real takeaway. Now let's look at an annotated version of this ACT essay example that points out the essay's features. and specific examples that discuss both sides of the perspectives: " certain people whose only social interactions are anonymous text-based conversations how to write a good act essay other anonymous Internet forum dwellers over computers may begin to lose basic human courtesy and empathy The essay is long enough to analyze and compare the author's perspective to other perspectives in a nuanced way one positive example for each perspective with an addition negative example comparing two perspectives the author disagreed with to her own perspective and include an introductory paragraph and a conclusion.

While ACT, Inc. doesn't acknowledge that length is a factor in scoring ACT essayshow to write a good act essay, most experts agree that it is. But length means nothing if there isn't valuable information filling the space, so long ACT essays also need to be detailed—this author uses the space to give lots of analysis of and context for her examples, how to write a good act essay. You may have noticed that the essay is broken up into multiple paragraphs into the standard five-paragraph format, in fact. This makes the essay easier to read, especially for the ACT readers who have about two to three minutes to read and score! each essay. If your points can easily be split up into small parts, then it makes sense to split it up into even more paragraphs, as long as your essay's organization and logical progression remains clear.

This essay uses a personal example, how to write a good act essay, which may or may not be made up spoiler alert: it is. But the point is that how to write a good act essay could be made up, how to write a good act essay, as can anything you use in your essay. Being able to think of examples that are not too obviously made up can give you a huge advantage on the ACT essay, how to write a good act essay. The key to a perfect score on the ACT essay is to use every second of your time wisely. To this end, how to write a good act essay, here are a few tips to avoid common time-wasters and put your energy where it will get you the most points.

Find out more about how to write an ACT essay with this step-by-step example. Use our analysis of the ACT Writing Rubric to learn about how your essay will be scored—and discover strategies you can use to get the score you want. Want to aim for perfection on the ACT with a 36? Read our guide on how to score a perfect ACT score, written by our resident 36 scorer. Make sure your ACT score is high enough for the schools you want to apply to. Find out how to find your ACT target score. Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes.

We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves how to write a good act essay students on how to excel in high school.

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. comallow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff.

writing argumentative essay

If you write about the same topic as everyone else, it is likely that some people won't do it as well as you, but others will do it better. So try not to open yourself to these comparisons. Be original. Again, this doesn't mean that you can't write about a common topic, but if you are going to do it, make sure you pick very specific examples within that topic to demonstrate your knowledge. But if you can think of something that would be less obvious, go that route. Now, this is tricky. You can get a perfect score simply by completely agreeing with one of the three presented perspectives, and for the vast majority of students, this is the best course of action to make sure you don't go completely off track and end up hurting your score. However, if you consider yourself to be a very strong writer, you might be able to truly impress by adding your own twist on the prompt.

In most cases, the easiest way to do this is to narrow the scope of one of the perspectives. For example, if you look at sample essay 5 on act. org, you'll see that the graders applauded the student for evaluating the perspectives through the "lens of a particular ideology": capitalism. Here's an excerpt of the score explanation:. The prompt is about a larger issue—the positive or negative impact of "intelligent machines" in our society—but this student has narrowed the scope and, in doing so, was able to provide a specific compelling argument that didn't try to address all areas of life in a five-paragraph essay. So for you ACT-writing superstars out there who are looking for a score in the 11—12 range, take these key tips to heart, and get practicing with ACT writing prompts.

The new ACT essay prompt is tough, but practicing with sample prompts and coming up with arguments on the fly will help! Practice the essay on its own, and then graduate to an ACT Practice Test to simulate the test-day experience. Kristin makes sure Magoosh's sites are full of awesome, free resources that can be found by students prepping for standardized tests. With a PhD from UC Irvine and degrees in Education and English, she's been working in education since and has helped students prepare for standardized tests, as well as college and graduate school admissions, since She enjoys the agony and bliss of trail running, backpacking, hot yoga, and esoteric knowledge. English is not my first language. I need English editing and proofreading so that I sound like a native speaker.

I need to have my journal article, dissertation, or term paper edited and proofread, or I need help with an admissions essay or proposal. I have a novel, manuscript, play, or ebook. I need editing, copy editing, proofreading, a critique of my work, or a query package. I need editing and proofreading for my white papers, reports, manuals, press releases, marketing materials, and other business documents. The increasing prevalence of intelligent machines challenges us to change long held beliefs about our limitations and to continue forward to new and even more advanced possibilities. One common argument against the increased presence of machines in our day to day lives is that machines leach from us our basic humanity. Indeed, certain people whose only social interactions are anonymous text-based conversations with other anonymous Internet forum dwellers over computers may begin to lose basic human courtesy and empathy.

This is crystal clear with a glance at the comments section of any popular news article. Yet machines are also capable of enhancing people's abilities to communicate. An example of this can be found in Tod Machover's lab at MIT, where breakthroughs in neurotechnology have made it possible for quadripalegics to manipulate text on computers with their minds. Such interactions would be impossible without the existence of intelligent machines. Therefore, I must disagree with Perspective one. Rather than losing part of our own humanity to machines, we instead make that most-essential-to-humanity of acts, communication, possible.

Another school of thought Perspective Two argues that machines are good at how and high skill repetitive jobs, which leads to a more prosperous and progressive world for everyone. This can be seen in the human work hours that are saved daily with automated phone menus. Before intelligent machines made automatic telephone menus possible, every customer service call ate up valuable employee time. Now, menus allow callers to choose the number that best suits their needs, routing calls to appropriate destinations without the need for human employees to waste time explaining for the hundredth time that "our business hours are 10am-6pm.

In terms of automated telephone menus, this means that sometimes, no menu options are correct. While automated systems may take the burden off of human workers, it is a mistake to think that they can replace humans entirely. A final example will demonstrate how intelligent machines challenge longstanding ideas and push us towards new, unimagined possibilities perspective three. At my high school, all students had to take diagnostic tests in every main subject to figure out our strengths and weaknesses, and we were then sorted into class by skill level. A truly remarkable pattern emerged as a result of this sorting: it turned out that every kid in my medium-level physics class was also a talented musician. The system that sorted us allowed us to find this underlying pattern, which changed the way our teachers taught us; we learned about mechanics through examples that were more relevant to our lives answering questions like "how many pulleys are needed to lift a piano?

When before I had struggled with physics and simply assumed it was a subject I "wasn't good at," the intelligent, automated sorting system allowed me to discover that I could in fact understand mechanics if taught in the right way. This discovery pushed me toward previously unimagined academic possibilities. In conclusion, intelligent machines help us to move forward as a species to greater heights. While machines can cause problems and may in some cases need human input to function optimally, it is how we react and adapt to the machines that is the real takeaway. Now let's look at an annotated version of this ACT essay example that points out the essay's features.

and specific examples that discuss both sides of the perspectives: " certain people whose only social interactions are anonymous text-based conversations with other anonymous Internet forum dwellers over computers may begin to lose basic human courtesy and empathy The essay is long enough to analyze and compare the author's perspective to other perspectives in a nuanced way one positive example for each perspective with an addition negative example comparing two perspectives the author disagreed with to her own perspective and include an introductory paragraph and a conclusion.

While ACT, Inc. doesn't acknowledge that length is a factor in scoring ACT essays , most experts agree that it is. But length means nothing if there isn't valuable information filling the space, so long ACT essays also need to be detailed—this author uses the space to give lots of analysis of and context for her examples. You may have noticed that the essay is broken up into multiple paragraphs into the standard five-paragraph format, in fact. This makes the essay easier to read, especially for the ACT readers who have about two to three minutes to read and score! each essay. If your points can easily be split up into small parts, then it makes sense to split it up into even more paragraphs, as long as your essay's organization and logical progression remains clear.

This essay uses a personal example, which may or may not be made up spoiler alert: it is. But the point is that it could be made up, as can anything you use in your essay. Being able to think of examples that are not too obviously made up can give you a huge advantage on the ACT essay. The key to a perfect score on the ACT essay is to use every second of your time wisely. To this end, here are a few tips to avoid common time-wasters and put your energy where it will get you the most points. Find out more about how to write an ACT essay with this step-by-step example. Use our analysis of the ACT Writing Rubric to learn about how your essay will be scored—and discover strategies you can use to get the score you want. Want to aim for perfection on the ACT with a 36? Read our guide on how to score a perfect ACT score, written by our resident 36 scorer.

Make sure your ACT score is high enough for the schools you want to apply to. Find out how to find your ACT target score. Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers. How to Get a Perfect , by a Perfect Scorer. Score on SAT Math. Score on SAT Reading. Score on SAT Writing. Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? Language Use and Conventions—Scores in this domain reflect the ability to use written language to convey arguments with clarity.

Competent writers make use of the conventions of grammar, syntax, word usage, and mechanics. They are also aware of their audience and adjust the style and tone of their writing to communicate effectively. The ACT writing section is scored on a scale of , based on the sum of the scores given by the two evaluators. org , a perfect 6 out of 6 on each of the four areas is considered as follows:. Ideas and Analysis— The writer generates an argument that critically engages with multiple perspectives on the given issue. The argument establishes and employs an insightful context for analysis of the issue and its perspectives. Development and Support— Development of ideas and support for claims deepen insight and broaden context. An integrated line of skillful reasoning and illustration effectively conveys the significance of the argument.

Qualifications and complications enrich and bolster ideas and analysis. Organization— The response exhibits a skillful organizational strategy. Transitions between and within paragraphs strengthen the relationships among ideas. Language Use and Conventions— The use of language enhances the argument. Word choice is skillful and precise. Sentence structures are consistently varied and clear. Stylistic and register choices, including voice and tone, are strategic and effective. While a few minor errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics may be present, they do not impede understanding. This perfect score is hard to come by, however, since both scorers would have to give the essay a score of 6 out of 6.

Remember that this section is optional and does not count toward your composite score! So what actually is a GOOD essay score? Well, the average writing score is just shy of a 7 out of Notice that organization is one of the four areas that your essay will be scored on. Use this outline to help you understand how to organize your essay to make it flow nicely. Remember to always outline at least the topics of your supporting paragraphs before you start writing. While the ACT writing section may seem like a nuisance that wastes more of your Saturday morning and does not contribute to your composite ACT score, it can actually be very beneficial for students preparing to make the leap to college.

Even if the writing section is not an admissions requirement for the specific schools that you plan to apply to, it might help you to gauge your writing abilities and thus determine how easy or difficult of a time college-level writing will be for you. Of course, there is much more preparation that can be done to ensure a student is ready to excel on the ACT writing section. If you want to refine your essay writing skills to make sure they are fitting for a high score on the ACT essay, one of our expert tutors would be happy to help you prepare.

Reach out to us on our Contact page or by email at info thepreparedstudent. com to discuss your ACT test goals and test prep needs.