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ACT-English Section
Time: 45 minutes for 5 passages, each passage 15 questions. Hard 9 min/passage but preferred pace is 8 min/passage so 5 minutes at end to check answers or go over ones not sure about (mark questions not 100% certain on)
TOP 2 KEYS TO SUCCESS:
The ACT has made it their stated goal that they are looking for the clearest, most concise, and most correct answer. Look to the shortest answer first. Check to see if it is grammatically correct and concise.
Pay attention to how the answer choices change or key punctuation/grammar to know what the question is about. With grammar and mechanics questions, there are no actual questions, just answer choices, but how the answer choices change should instantly tell you what the question is assessing.
Next, important grammatical understandings: A lot of the grammatical questions center around punctuating clauses, and there are two types of those: independent and dependent.
independent clauses-a phrase that contains both a subject and a predicate (the component of the sentence that contains the verb) and can stand completely on its own
dependent clauses-just like an independent clause, dependent clauses have a subject and a predicate, but they start with a subordinate conjunction (e.g. if, because, since, while, etc.), and these prevent the clauses from being able to stand on their own.
Joining Independent/Dependent Clauses
Now if you have a dependent clause and then an independent clause (just like this sentence), then a comma must separate the clauses. However, no punctuation is necessary if the order is reversed (just like this sentence).
Punctuating Independent Clauses
The most common method to separate independent clauses is a period. Surprisingly this actually shows up as the correct answer relatively often. Other appropriate methods to separate independent clauses are a comma with a coordinating conjunction (“and”, “or”, “nor”, “for”, “so”, “yet”, and “but”) and even semicolons and colons. Now semicolons and colons have slightly different uses, and these will be covered later, but for the most part, you will not ever have to determine the distinction.
Hopefully you have noticed by now that there are multiple appropriate methods to separate independent clauses, so be aware on the ACT if two answers are virtually identical other than that punctuation mark, then both answers are incorrect. (e.g. I was hungry; I went to the store. vs I was hungry. I went to the store. Those are virtually the same, especially in the eyes of the ACT.
Colons vs. Semicolons
Most students are not aware that a colon can separate independent clauses because they are used to a colon introducing a list (I am going to the store for some cake ingredients: flour, milk, and eggs.); however, a colon does not just introduce a list or separate independent clauses. A colon has a more singular explanation that allows it to do both of those things: explanation. Note how I used a colon and followed it by a single word, neither a list nor an independent clause. A colon can introduce anything that clarifies, explains, or defines a concept from the preceding independent clause almost regardless of the grammatical structure after the colon. That is the power of the colon.
On the other hand, a semicolon simply separates two independent clauses, and that is it as far as I am aware.
Parenthetical Information:
In general parenthetical information is information that just adds details or supports the main ideas of the sentence, and this information can either be necessary or unnecessary information. If the information is unnecessary, then there needs to be some sort of punctuation to clarify that (if the opposite is true, then punctuation is unnecessary). Commas, dashes, and parentheses can all set off parenthetical information, and they each have their own slight difference in emphasis, but the ACT has not to my knowledge forced students to recognize that yet. Instead, students can determine which option to use by simply paying attention to the rest of the phrase or clause that is being set off because at the other end of that grammatical construct will be a dash or a parenthesis if that is the correct punctuation in the sentence. Bottom line for parenthetical information commas, dashes, and parentheses come in pairs.
If you ever have a question as to whether the information is parenthetical or not, try removing it from the sentence. If you understand the main point of the sentence without it, then you have parenthetical information. Just as important as the previous detail is that you can actually remove parenthetical information from sentences to help you more easily determine if your subject and verb agree, etc.
If information about a person comes before the person’s name, then it acts more like a title and is not parenthetical: Alabama football Coach Nick Saban has been dominant over his career as a college coach. vs Nick Saban, Alabama’s football coach, has been dominant over his career as a college coach.
Final important comma uses:
Pay attention to introductory phrases and clauses. These introductory elements almost always need a comma after them before the rest of the sentence. The most important example of this is any introductory participial phrase (e.g. Running for his life, Frank hit his head on a branch). Please note that the noun the phrase is modifying must immediately follow the noun. Period. If the previous sentence had read “Running for his life, Frank’s head hit a branch,” that would be illogical, for a head cannot run for his life. The noun after an introductory participial phrase must be the noun the phrase is modifying.
Subject-verb agreement:
Most of the time students believe that when the verb is changing in answer choices, then the question is about tense; however, that is not true:
Add information about transitions
Possession:
Simply remember that if a word ends in an “s”, you simply add an apostrophe to show possession. If the word does not end in an “s”, then put an apostrophe and then an “s”. It does not matter if the word is plural or not. If you follow that rule, 99% of the time you will be correct.
More important is the concept of possession with pronouns: his, hers, yours, mine, ours, etc. Please note that each possessive pronoun is possessive without an apostrophe. This is also true for its and whose. Those are possessive, while “it’s” is “it is” and “who’s” is “who is”. Pronouns have their own possessive form, so if you ever see a pronoun with an apostrophe, it is a contraction.
Important Pronoun Rules
If you are not sure/If it is not completely clear what noun a pronoun is referring to, then you cannot use a pronoun. The noun that the pronoun refers to is called the pronoun’s antecedent, and you must be able to clearly understand what that antecedent is in order to use a pronoun. Oftentimes on the ACT you will note that there are three answer choices that have a pronoun but one apparently random noun option. In this case check for an antecedent.
Parallel Structure:
At all times try to keep everything parallel: phrases within a sentence, sentences within a paragraph, even paragraphs within a passage. If you have a participle, keep using a participle. Don’t switch to an infinitive. If a certain rhetorical device is used a few times, keep using it!
Verbs:
Please take note: a lot of times, when students see a verb changing in the answer choice (e.g. “have run”, “runs”, “is running,” or “has run”), they think the focus is on tense, but make sure that you are paying attention to the subject-verb agreement. I think every time but once over the last 7 years, this has been all about subject-verb agreement. (If you need any help with determining if a verb is singular or plural, please let me know.) An important detail is to pay attention to who or what is doing the action because the subject and verb can easily be separated by multiple words due to phrases, making it harder to identify the correct subject. This can be especially true when there are parenthetical phrases, so be on the lookout for those and remove the parenthetical phrase to make your job easier in determining if the subject and verb agree.
Transitions:
A more and more popular topic on the ACT is choosing an appropriate transition. Words like “however”, “therefore”, “then”, etc show a relationship between ideas, so you need to look at the sentence, or sometimes even paragraph, before the current sentence to determine how the two sentences relate. Is there a contrast in ideas? A cause and effect? Relation in time? Etc.
Rhetorical Skills Questions:
For the most part, approach these questions as you would the reading questions on the ACT. Pay attention to details and answer the question. It is that simple, so do not overcomplicate it.
If you guys want I can write something like this for each section of the ACT
