A strong ACT writing strategy includes preparing enough time to write and revise your introduction and conclusion paragraphs, as we explain below. Key Strategy: How to Write A Successful ACT Essay in 40 Minutes. Because you only have 40 minutes to write the ACT essay, you need to have a game plan before you start the test 8/8/ · Essay writing is an important skill for high schoolers to build to help them be successful in college. The ACT writing essay is just one of many essays that students will write during their high school years, and it’s a somewhat important essay. The ACT essay is always an argumentative essay that requires students to argue a blogger.comted Reading Time: 9 mins In your essay, be sure to: clearly state your own perspective on the issue and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective. develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples. organize your ideas clearly and logically
How to Write an ACT Essay: Step-by-Step Example
ACT StrategiesACT Writing. Sometimes writing—especially writing for standardized tests—can feel like something you "get" or "don't get. In this article, we've broken how to write the ACT essay into eight steps that work for every essay, every time. Then, we show you exactly how to do it with an actual ACT essay example. Many students ask us how to write an ACT essay, how to write a good act essay, and while the answer is simple enough to explain in eight steps as we do belowit's not necessarily simple to do.
As with any skill, the key to learning how to write an ACT essay is to study a good model which we are going to cover in this article and then practice, how to write a good act essay, practice, practice.
The ACT essay plan below has been modified from our ACT Essay Tips article to fit the new ACT Writing Test. The template includes three sections: planning, writing and revising. If you practice using this template to write ACT essays, you'll get much faster and probably more precise. Here's the sample prompt we'll be responding to:. 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 than humans. This efficiency leads to a more prosperous 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.
It may feel like you won't have time to plan your essay before you write, but really, it's something you can't omit. Trust us. Organizing your thoughts as you write will cost you way more time than if you take how to write a good act essay time to plan out your essay before you begin writing.
Because addressing the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective is an integral part of the essay task, you need to make sure you understand what the prompt is saying and at least skim through the perspectives. The good news is that each perspective includes both a general assertion about intelligent machines as well as an opinion that places the topic in a broader context, saving you some work in coming up with your own, how to write a good act essay, independent perspective.
While it is possible to come up with a fourth point of view on the topic, I don't recommend it. The added time you'll have to spend coming up with your own point of view could be better spend developing your comparison of your perspective to at least one other perspective, how to write a good act essay. If your perspective is a "blending" of multiple perspectives, that's also fine, as long as you make sure you compare your blended perspective to each of how to write a good act essay perspectives it combines; otherwise, you won't fulfill the "analyze how to write a good act essay relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective" part of the task.
Bottom line: choose the perspective you think you can support the best. Because the ACT essay involves discussing the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective, not just your perspective, you'll have to use multiple pieces of evidence in your essay. During this step, if you find that you're able to find more convincing evidence to support a different perspective than the one you've chosen, you can always switch—after all, you're still planning.
Also, you don't have to write in complete sentences, how to write a good act essay, or phrase things as elegantly as you will in the actual essay, so don't worry about that. If you haven't already, read through the paragraph at the beginning of the essay prompt. You can appropriate some or all of the examples in it to use in your own essay.
You can tell any story real or not about you or someone else you know or make up that supports any one of your points. Again, these can be real or made up.
Use knowledge of events from history or current events to support your points. If you're not certain of the details, it's all right—the essay graders won't deduct points for factually inaccurate information.
For this essay, you could use the invention of the printing press and its effects as an example of how mechanization can lead to "unimagined possibilities. Evidence : Many of our phone conversations are conducted not with people, but with sophisticated technologies Explanation : People get so frustrated with the technology that when they press "0" to speak with a real human they are often rude and discourteous. Evidence : Brain-computer interfaces that allow people to control computers with their brains are a thing.
Explanation : Allow people to overcome physical limitations, inspire us to continue researching and expanding knowledge, how to write a good act essay. There's no one right way to respond to the perspectives the ACT gives you.
Some of it depends on what point of view you take. For instance, if I agreed with Perspective One, which takes a negative view of the effects of intelligent machines, I might want to discuss both of the other two perspectives which both take positive views of intelligent machines in one paragraph, and then disagree with them in the next paragraph as I present my support for Perspective One.
Since I'm arguing for Perspective Three machines challenge our ideas about what humans are or can be, which pushes us and machines toward new possibilitiesI'm going to argue against Perspective One and Perspective Two separately, because I have strong evidence for my analyses of each perspective.
Because the essay only requires you to analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective, if I had lots of evidence to use in my comparison of my perspective and Perspective One, but nothing to say about Perspective Two, I could also decide not to discuss that perspective at all. In this case, I was able to think of solid arguments for and against both of the other perspectives, so I chose to analyze both of them and their relationship to my perspective below.
Again, these are not necessarily worded in their final form. In addition, recordings of calls with angry customers are how to write a good act essay to improve the menus. Explanation : Robots take over dangerous jobs which decreases risk of injury to human workers, lowering cost to employers.
Robots can not only do things instead of humans, but can actually work with humans, as in precise surgery, to a better result than either humans or machines alone. Now that you have the main points of your essay, it's time to organize them in a way that makes sense. Make sure to include your introduction with your thesis statement containing your point of view, or at least a rough sense of your thesis statement and conclusion in this organization. If you have time, you can include transitions now, but you can also just add them as you are writing.
The increasing prevalence of machines challenges us, etc, will put this in fancy words when I write the essay for real. Body Paragraph 1. Body Paragraph 2. Body Paragraph 3. In conclusion, rather than taking away from our humanity, intelligent machines help us to move forward as a species to new heights.
By the end of this step, you should try to have about 30 minutes left so you have enough time to write. Write your introduction. If you can think of an interesting first sentence that brings your thesis into a larger discussion, start with that. If writing the introduction stumps you, just leave lines blank at the beginning of the paper and come back to it.
From the simplest system of pulleys and ropes in ancient Greece to the most complex supercomputer in the world today, machines have had and continue to have a profound influence on the development of humanity. Make sure you clearly state your thesis.
While some argue that machines have a negative impact on us, the increasing prevalence of intelligent machines in the world challenges us to change long held beliefs about our how to write a good act essay and to continue forward to new and even more advanced possibilities.
When you start your first body paragraphtry to think of a first sentence that refers back to the first paragraph. Ideally, you'll start every paragraph by referring back to your thesis to create a unified argument.
One common argument against the increased presence of machines in our day-to-day lives is that machines leach away at our basic humanity. Next, address the argument opposing yours in this case, Perspective One.
Explain the evidence that supports this perspective in three to five sentences. I found this to be true in my own life as a result of witnessing many a phone conversation between my mother and an automated telephone menu.
For whatever reason, she consistently has issues with the menus that try to verify her date of birth. The automated system never understands what she says possibly because of her accentand asks her to input the numbers via her keypad; of course, my mom's smartphone is so smart that the screen turns off while she is on a call, making it impossible for her to follow the automated phone system's instructions.
By the time the system gives up and routes her to speak to a "human representative," my mother is often so frustrated that she is far from courteous and respectful to that person. Then, make sure to explain your counterargument to this perspective, tying it back to your thesis. Despite my mother's understandable frustration with automated phone systems, however, overall the benefits outweigh the costs. Providing people with the option how to write a good act essay submit prescriptions or ask about store hours through an automated menu frees up customer service representatives to answer questions machines are incapable of addressing.
In addition, the recordings of angry phone calls where customers are not courteous, respectful, or tolerant of other humans are used to improve the phone menus to make them more user-friendly. Thus, the momentary disrespect toward other humans caused by machines is more than compensated for by the positive effects of those same machines. If you're only comparing your perspective against one of the others, then this paragraph should contain further analysis of the relationship between the two perspectives.
If you're comparing your perspective against both of the other perspectives as I did in this essaythen this is where you introduce your thoughts on the second perspective.
Another school of thought argues that the main utility of machines is their ability to perform repetitive tasks more precisely and more efficiently than humans, which leads to a more prosperous and progressive world for everyone.
Address the argument of this second perspective in this case, Perspective Two. In auto plants around the world, robots build cars on assembly lines. Instead of having to pay a human employee a yearly salary, invest time in training that employee, how to write a good act essay, and worry about liability should that employee be injured, manufacturing plants can how to write a good act essay make a one-time purchase of an intelligent machine that will perform that same job at higher levels of precision.
This leads to a more prosperous world for the manufacturers, as they are able to invest less money to get a better product.
This perspective is fine as far as it goes, but is limited in its consideration of the implications. Robots can not only work in place of humans, but can also work cooperatively with humans to a greater results than either could have hoped for alone.
This can be seen in highly complex and delicate surgeries, where a surgeon controls robotic microtools to perform operations that even ten years ago would have been unimaginable and impossible. Introduce your main perspective, linking it back to the counterarguments you've made against at least one of the other perspectives.
I agree with Perspective Three that the true impact of intelligent machines in our lives is that they challenge us to re-think our preconceived notions of what people can do or become in the future. A final example of this is brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs. Humans are able to manipulate computers with their brains via electrodes that are either implanted in their brains or attached temporarily to their heads.
ACT® Essay DOs and DON’Ts: Top Tips for How to Write a Winning Essay
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16/4/ · The following are other tips for writing a good Act essay: Use less-obvious examples in your act essay. Choose the option to provide your own perspective on the ACT essay, but only switch it up slightly. Some Act Essay ExamplesEstimated Reading Time: 6 mins In your essay, be sure to: clearly state your own perspective on the issue and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective. develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples. organize your ideas clearly and logically A strong ACT writing strategy includes preparing enough time to write and revise your introduction and conclusion paragraphs, as we explain below. Key Strategy: How to Write A Successful ACT Essay in 40 Minutes. Because you only have 40 minutes to write the ACT essay, you need to have a game plan before you start the test
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