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Everything About the ACT Essay Writing Section
June 1, 2020 ACT 0

Everything About the ACT Essay Writing Section

Are you afraid of the ACT essay writing section? Well, we are here to make everything simple for you. This article will enlighten you regarding all the critical aspects of the ACT essay writing section, including some preparation strategies to ace this particular section. So, after reading this article, you will be able to plan out the best way to tackle this section in any given circumstance.

Introduction to the ACT essay writing section

The Essay writing section of the ACT examination is an additional section apart from the other four sections. These other four sections are Math, Science, Reading, and English. In the Essay Section, students are asked to create their original writing piece. So, basically, the ACT Essay somehow resembles a college assignment. And the main motive behind including this section for evaluation is to analyze the writing and analytical skills of the test takers. But unlike the other four sections, the ACT Essay writing is an optional section.
The essay writing section is the last section of the test, and the test takers have around 45 minutes to answer a prompt. This prompt is provided to them as soon as the section starts. The test takers are provided with a short passage that asks a question. Along with that, three perspectives are also provided to answer this stated question in different ways. After reading the given passage, students are required to write an essay based on their evaluation of each of the three perspectives and offer their own perspective as well. This is an essential part of the instructions because often students only complete one of these specified tasks.

Should I attempt the ACT Essay writing section?

Many students are confused about whether to attempt the essay writing section or not, as it is an optional section. However, we think that, although it is optional, if you want to get enrolled in some of the US’s top colleges, then it is compulsory to attempt the essay writing section. Elite colleges require you to write the ACT essay as they believe that this section provides a complete portrait of the student’s writing and analyzing abilities.
So, we will recommend you to attempt this section in your ACT exam due to several other reasons as well, apart from the one stated above. Like, the ACT Essay is quite straightforward once you understand the prompt. You just have to evaluate the given perspectives and offer some of your own opinions. Moreover, these essay prompts are often very interesting, and we have trained many students who genuinely enjoy writing about the given topics in the exam.

How to prepare for the ACT Essay?

Like the other ACT Sections, students who prepare well in advance often score better. So as earlier stated, the first step is to understand what the prompt is asking for. Then, try to concentrate while reading the passage and immediately recollect your opinions in the form of short points. The next thing to do is to align your opinions with the different perspectives that are presented in the question prompt. It is generally advised to take approximately 8 minutes in reading and understanding the question prompt. Now, the best way to present your opinions is to include some other information like reference facts, statistics, or any other details to substantiate your opinion.

So, formulating your opinion requires a structured and focused response. Moreover, it is important to note that your opinion should be a subtle variant of one of the three given perspectives.
In the next step, try to draw a brief outline of your essay so that you can align everything in the right direction. ACT evaluators like essays that adhere to the five-paragraph structure often used in high school. In the introduction part, you should clearly point out the central argument of the essay, along with a brief about your own perspective.
The best approach for paragraph structuring is to include every new perspective in a separate paragraph and have a dedicated paragraph stating your opinions. After including all the given perspectives and your opinion, include a separate paragraph for writing the conclusion. This paragraph, which states the conclusion, should touch upon all the above-written paragraphs in brief. If you follow this approach, we believe that you will be able to write an excellent ACT essay.

How is the ACT essay score evaluated?

The ACT Essay score is evaluated on the basis of four domains: Ideas and Analysis, Organization, Development and Support, and Language Use and Conventions. Two evaluators read your essay and allot a score in the range of 1 to 6 for each domain, and these scores are then added together to get a total domain score of 2-12. So, the overall ACT Essay score is actually the average of these four domain scores; therefore, it also lies between 2-12.

Some Key Takeaways

The ACT Essay writing section can seem daunting to many students, and there has been a lot of confusion about the prompt due to the recently redesigned exam. We hope that this article has clarified everything regarding this section. The best way to prepare for the ACT Essay is through practice. We would recommend that students should dedicate a few hours every day to write about different topics so that they can easily replicate the process in the actual exam scenario. Moreover, this process will also make them familiar with different types of question prompts.

But, the problem arises when you don’t have an evaluator who can read and evaluate your writing piece. Don’t worry, we at Miles Smart Tutoring will always be happy to evaluate your practice essays and guide you to improve further. We believe that we will be able to provide you with a detailed analysis based on our evaluation, which can significantly improve your essay writing skills for the ACT essay writing section.

Like to read more about how to secure an exam fee waiver for the ACT exam, so read our article, How to secure an ACT and SAT exam fee waiver?

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