ACT Prompt #3

• 500 words minimum this time!
• Notice the instruction language after the perspectives is the same as the last two ACT essay prompts. Remember that going into your test. You don't have to waste time going over it. You know it already. 

Intelligent Machines

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.

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about the increasing presence of intelligent machines. 

PERSPECTIVE 1 — 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 2 — 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 3 — 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.

Essay Task

Write a cohesive, logical essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on intelligent machines. In your essay, be sure to: 
• examine and assess the perspectives given

• declare and explain your own perspective on the issue

• discuss the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full or partial agreement, or in total disagreement, with any of the others. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Plan and Write Your Essay

Consider the following as you compose your essay:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the three perspectives provided?

•        Identify the insights they present and what they fail to consider.

•        Ascertain why a given perspective might persuade or fail to persuade.

How can you apply your own experience, knowledge, and values?

•        Express your perspective on the issue, identifying the perspective's strengths and weaknesses.

•        Formulate a plan to support your perspective in your essay.

ACT Prompt #2

Net Neutrality   

While no one owns the Internet, service providers own the pathways by which individuals access web-based content. Many of those providers have considered offering a tiered system, wherein higher-paying companies would have priority on the information superhighway. Simply put, certain websites would become faster and easier to load for consumers based on whether the company that owned them paid the Internet service provider for priority access. Some argue, however, that a tiered system like this would contradict the essence of the Internet itself, which they believe should be a neutral space where all content is treated equally and thus delivered at the same speed. Given the increasing role the internet plays in both social and business lives, it is worth exploring the significance of net neutrality.  

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about neutrality of access to Internet content.

Perspective One - Internet providers should be regulated in a way that ensures customers are able to access any and all content at the same speed. The providers should not be able to give preference to some companies or sites over others, but instead should offer an even playing field for all.

Perspective Two - Companies that provide Internet services have a right to tailor their services in the way they deem best for their business. If an Internet service provider wants to give preference to some content over others, they should be allowed.

Perspective Three – Internet service providers should be mandated to offer a base level of speed and accessibility to all web content. Once that level is met, if providers want to prioritize certain sites or offer even faster speeds for customers willing to pay more, they should be able to do that.

Essay Task

Write a cohesive, logical essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on net neutrality. In your essay, be sure to: • examine and assess the perspectives given

• declare and explain your own perspective on the issue

• discuss the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full or partial agreement, or in total disagreement, with any of the others. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Plan and Write Your Essay

Consider the following as you compose your essay:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the three perspectives provided?

•        Identify the insights they present and what they fail to consider.

•        Ascertain why a given perspective might persuade or fail to persuade.

How can you apply your own experience, knowledge, and values?

•        Express your perspective on the issue, identifying the perspective's strengths and weaknesses.

•        Formulate a plan to support your perspective in your essay.

ACT Prompt #1

The following is a recent ACT essay prompt. It will present the issue, several perspectives on that issue, your task, and suggestions on how to plan the writing. You'll see each of these things when you sit for the actual ACT. 

One of the big differences between what we're doing and the ACT essay experience is timing. You'll only have 40 minutes to plan and write your essay during the actual ACT. I'm not concerned with timing yet. I want you to become familiar with the process first. 

So for this prompt follow these guidelines:
1. 600 - 800 words
2. Use opening context and an ending word or phrase that frames it. 
3. Proof it as a final draft. 
4. Organization is entirely up to you. Just read through all parts of the prompt carefully so that you understand the task. 


ACT Essay Prompt: School Start Times

Many studies have suggested that sleep deprivation is a widespread problem among children and teenagers. Teens in particular struggle to fully engage both mentally and physically at early hours. Moreover, later sleep time shave been shown to improve brain and physical development within that cohort. Today’s early school start times, however, are based on traditional schedules that are focused more on historical precedent than recent discoveries in human cognitive development. Basing their opinion on the studies, some feel that schools should adjust their schedules to conform to the findings of this research. Given the growing awareness of the crucial nature of sleep in not only physical but also intellectual and emotional development, it is worthwhile to explore this issue.

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about adjusting school start times.

Perspective One - To maximize the effectiveness of the learning process, school start times should be pushed back an hour or more across the board to improve the sleep kids get and help them do better in their studies.

Perspective Two - Because children have evolving sleep patterns as they age, school start times should get steadily later as kids develop, with primary school students starting earlier than high school students.

Perspective Three - Due to extracurricular activities such as athletics, music, and even jobs, a later school start time is not realistic. If school starts later, it will also end later, giving less time for students to pursue important activities after school.

Essay Task

Write a cohesive, logical essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on when school should start in the morning. In your essay, be sure to:

• examine and assess the perspectives given
• declare and explain your own perspective on the issue
• discuss the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full or partial agreement, or in total disagreement, with any of the others. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Plan and Write Your Essay

Consider the following as you compose your essay:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the three perspectives provided?

• Identify the insights they present and what they fail to consider.
• Ascertain why a given perspective might persuade or fail to persuade.

How can you apply your own experience, knowledge, and values?

•        Express your perspective on the issue, identifying the perspective's strengths and weaknesses.
•        Formulate a plan to support your perspective in your essay.

Q set ("The formal tradition...")

Passage III corrections..

31. D – No separation needed, so no punctuation

32. H – Again, so separation needed. “That” is restrictive, meaning it’s defining the thing it’s attached to; “which” is non-essential (it adds additional information, just like this parenthetical does, so it will have a comma in front of it).

33. A

34. New sentence (new complete thought), so a comma won’t quite do it. You need a period or semicolon.

35. C - The only conjunction that reflects the relationship between the clauses (that his works are important because he was the first...) is and. You can tell they're looking for understanding of the text and not punctuation because all of the punctuation options are the same.

36. H - Use the -er (comparative) form when comparing two things, -est (superlative) form when comparing more than two. "She is the taller of the twins."

37. D - The comma has to be there to close the phrase; only began makes a complete sentence.

38. G 

39. A

40. G - It starts a new sentence.

41. C - It keeps the focus on the early century and the work of the poets.

42. G - J is grammatically ok, but it's wordy. 

43. A

44. J - Have agrees with the plural subjects. 

45. C - This kind of question can be a time killer. Look at the topic sentences first. In this case, it's obvious that 1 and 2 need to be switched. 

Q set ("Comic Books...")

46 - J  (Keep it simple.)
47 - B
48 - J  (Still keeping it simple. The other words don't add info or they repeat the meaning.)
49 - D (No punctuation needed as there's no separation between words.)
50 - J (The other choices confuse the sentence's meaning.)
51 - C ("It's" is a contraction.)
52 - G
53 - A
54 - J (Did you notice they got the year wrong for Superman? It was 38 not 83.)
55 - D (Obviously, right?)
56 - J (Keep it parallel.)
57 - A
58 - J (Agreement with singular subject "value" and no comma.)
59 - A
60 - G

Corrections and Review Practice Test A

Passage II (Jane Austen's reputation...)

16. G - ...grown so steadily that.... There's no break or separation between steadily and that, right? So no comma. The comma's job is to separate (a softer separation than a period or semicolon).

17. D - The -ly makes it an adverb telling us how her novels were published. This one probably just sounded correct (but you can't totally rely on how it sounds for the ACT; they test around that).

18. J - F is almost correct, but that comma is in the wrong place. G creates a run-on. H uses Although, which makes no sense.

19. B 

20. J - All choices are grammatically ok, but J is the clearest and least awkward.

21. B - What two things are being contrasted? The contributions, so only B and D are possibilities, and only "those" work. (We haven't seen Sir Walter Scott's contributions yet, so there are no "these.")  

22. G - Everything else in this passage has been past tense, so we stick with became.

23. B - Subject / verb agreement. "Was" is working with "term."

24. G - Dangling Modifier!  "Noted...society," is a modifying phrase. How do we know? Because it's a participial (a phrase based on something that looks like a verb, usually ending in -ing or -ed, in this case noted). Whatever comes right after the phrase has to be described by the phrase. Obviously it's describing her, so we would look for "Jane" or "Austen" or in this "Miss Austen."

25. B - You probably were deciding between putting before or after sentence 2. Both sentences would see to flow ok after sentence one, but only sentence 2 fits right before sentence 3. One strategy for this kind of question is to look at those transitions, the words that join the sentences. 

26. H

27. A - No separation

28. H - Parallel structure. We need both parts (to be personally inadequate ... to lack breeding) to be the same kind of thing, in this case infinitive phrases (both begin with "to" and a verb).

29. B - Simple conjunction: "not only [solely]...but also"

30. F - You could read these as verbs: Does the passage primarily inform, sensationalize, confess, or accuse?






Passage I (Many people think of the desert...)

1. C - We want the choice that suggests negating the opinion. Disposes is close, but the meaning is too strong. 

2. J - Past tense

3. B - The sentence begins with "Situated in Southern California..." This is a phrase that needs to modify whatever comes right after it, so what comes after needs to be something that is situated in southern Cal. The only possibility is valley, which makes the right answer B. When the thing after the comma can't be modified by the phrase, we call it a dangling modifier. 

4. H - It completes the comparison "as many as."

5. B - Has (present perfect tense) suggests the lake is currently in the state of drying up.

6. J - It's redundant (we already have "Called"; that's often the reason for omitting the portion).

7. A - Just simple past tense

8. H

9. C

10. H - This is both stylistically best (it flows) and grammatically correct (the other options have either verb problems or, with choice F, a dangling modifier. 

11. A

12. J

13. A

14. G - The phrase "extending . . . October" is non-essential to the sentence, meaning it's parenthetical. You can take it out and it doesn't change the meaning and focus of the sentence. In that case you want commas around it. If removing the phrase alters the sentence's meaning, then leave out the commas.

15. C - The other choices add unnecessary wording.

Passage II (Jane Austen's reputation...)

Passage II (Jane Austen's reputation...)

16. G - ...grown so steadily that.... There's no break or separation between steadily and that, right? So no comma. The comma's job is to separate (a softer separation than a period or semicolon).

17. D - The -ly makes it an adverb telling us how her novels were published. This one probably just sounded correct (but you can't totally rely on how it sounds for the ACT; they test around that).

18. J - F is almost correct, but that comma is in the wrong place. G creates a run-on. H uses Although, which makes no sense.

19. B 

20. J - All choices are grammatically ok, but J is the clearest and least awkward.

21. B - What two things are being contrasted? The contributions, so only B and D are possibilities, and only "those" work. (We haven't seen Sir Walter Scott's contributions yet, so there are no "these.")  

22. G - Everything else in this passage has been past tense, so we stick with became.

23. B - Subject / verb agreement. "Was" is working with "term."

24. G - Dangling Modifier!  "Noted...society," is a modifying phrase. How do we know? Because it's a participial (a phrase based on something that looks like a verb, usually ending in -ing or -ed, in this case noted). Whatever comes right after the phrase has to be described by the phrase. Obviously it's describing her, so we would look for "Jane" or "Austen" or in this "Miss Austen."

25. B - You probably were deciding between putting before or after sentence 2. Both sentences would see to flow ok after sentence one, but only sentence 2 fits right before sentence 3. One strategy for this kind of question is to look at those transitions, the words that join the sentences. 

26. H

27. A - No separation

28. H - Parallel structure. We need both parts (to be personally inadequate ... to lack breeding) to be the same kind of thing, in this case infinitive phrases (both begin with "to" and a verb).

29. B - Simple conjunction: "not only [solely]...but also"

30. F - You could read these as verbs: Does the passage primarily inform, sensationalize, confess, or accuse?Pass