Are there essays on the act

Your score will not be affected by the point of view you take on the issue. Some colleges require the ACT writing test. You should decide whether or not you should take it based on the requirements of the colleges you are applying to or considering. Because postsecondary institutions have varying needs, we offer the ACT writing test as an option.

There are many ways to prepare for the ACT writing test that don't even include writing at all. Reading newspapers and magazines, listening to news analyses on television or radio, and participating in discussions and debates about issues and problems all help you build a foundation for your writing skills. These activities help you become more familiar with current issues, with different perspectives on those issues, and with strategies that skilled writers and speakers use to present their points of view.

Of course, one of the best ways to prepare for the ACT writing test is to practice writing. Practice writing for different purposes, with different audiences in mind.

The writing you do in your English classes will help you. Practice writing stories, poems, plays, editorials, reports, letters to the editor, a personal journal, or other kinds of writing that you do on your own—including, yes, essays.

The ACT writing test asks you to explain your perspective on an issue in a convincing way, so writing opportunities such as editorials or letters to the editor of a newspaper are especially helpful.

Practicing various types of writing will help make you a versatile writer able to adjust to different writing assignments. Get some practice writing within a time limit. This will not only give you an advantage on the test, but also will help you build skills that are important in college-level learning and in the world of work.

You can strengthen your writing skills just about anywhere, anytime. Read below for some ideas to make writing, responding, and organizing your thoughts part of your daily routine:. The ACT writing test contains one question to be completed in 40 minutes. When asked to write a timed essay, most writers find it useful to do some planning before they write the essay and to do a final check of the essay when it is finished.

It is unlikely that you will have time to draft, revise, and recopy your essay. Before writing, carefully read and consider all prompt material. Be sure you understand the issue, its perspectives, and your essay task.

The prewriting questions included with the prompt will help you analyze the perspectives and develop your own. Use these questions to think critically about the prompt and generate effective ideas in response.

Ask yourself how your ideas and analysis can best be supported and organized in a written argument. Use the prewriting space in your test booklet to structure or outline your response. Establish the focus of your essay by making clear your argument and its main ideas. Explain and illustrate your ideas with sound reasoning and meaningful examples.

Discuss the significance of your ideas: what are the implications of what you have to say, and why is your argument important to consider? You can still get accepted into any of these schools if you don't take ACT Writing, but taking the essay can give your application a boost. If you're concerned about your chances of getting into one of these schools, a high ACT Essay score will give you a bit of an extra edge over the competition.

If there's a school you're particularly interested in, check their admissions page usually under "standardized test policies" or something similar to see if they state their policy on ACT Writing. If they don't, a quick email or phone call to the school's admissions office will clear the issue up and help you decide if you should take the ACT Writing section or not.

Now that you know whether you need to take ACT Writing, make sure you do well on it. For top strategies for scoring a 36 on ACT English, check out this article. Don't forget the rest of the test —here are tips for getting a perfect ACT score, by a 36 full scorer. Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more.

Our program is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses. We also have expert instructors who can grade every one of your practice ACT essays, giving feedback on how to improve your score. She has years of tutoring experience and is also passionate about travel and learning languages.

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. 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. What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

How to Get a Perfect 4. How to Write an Amazing College Essay. A Comprehensive Guide. Choose Your Test. Yes, tech schools also care about your writing ability. Want to build the best possible college application?

Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our 5-day free trial:. Mary Ann Barge. About the Author. Search the Blog Search.

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Education is not merely a means to employment: ELA education helps students to live more meaningful lives. ELA programs should be eradicated entirely, except to establish the basic literacy necessary to engage in the hard sciences, mathematics, and business. Reading and writing are activities that are best saved for the leisure of students who enjoy them. Both are necessary to providing a student with a well-rounded education. Moreover, equal emphasis will allow the fullest possible exposure to many subjects before students choose their majors and careers Essay Task Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the issue of how schools should balance STEM and ELA subjects.

In your essay, be sure to: analyze and evaluate the perspectives given state and develop your own perspective on the issue explain the relationship between your perspective and those given Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in partial agreement, or wholly different.

How to Write the ACT Essay Your job is to write an essay in which you take some sort of position on the prompt, all while assessing the three perspectives provided in the boxes. Step 1: Work the Prompt What in the prompt requires you to weigh in?

Step 2: Work the Perspectives Typically, the three perspectives will be split: one for , one against , and one in the middle. For the example above, ask yourself: What does each perspective consider? What does each perspective overlook? Read More ACT. SAT Prep Courses. ACT Prep Courses. Enroll Now. Register Book Go.