ACT Preparation / Unit 5 ACT 0424 review, 2 to 3 minutes
One Passage, Five Decisions
The idea
Production of Writing asks what a passage is for and whether each part serves it. A text's purpose is the effect its writer wants on an audience: to inform, persuade, challenge or connect. A thesis is the controlling idea, and each paragraph centers on one main point, stated in a topic sentence wherever it sits. Support proves that point with facts, figures, examples or expert opinion, and analysis explains why the evidence matters. Good support is relevant, specific and sufficient; weak support is vague, disconnected, or buried in excess detail. A sentence belongs only if it serves the point at its position, and in add-or-delete questions the reason is what is tested. Every part has a function as well as a content. And a goal named in a question is met only when the passage's main work matches it.
In practice
Worked example: an invented passage for city residents argues for more shade trees. Paragraph one ends with the thesis: "Our streets need more shade trees." Paragraph two claims that trees cool streets and offers, as underlined support, "Trees are beautiful." The stronger choice is "Shaded pavement measured fifteen degrees cooler than sunny pavement on the same block," because it proves cooling and is specific. A proposed addition, "Oaks can live for centuries," gets a no: it is interesting but does not bear on cooling. In paragraph three, "For example, Elm Street's new trees cut one store's cooling bill by a fifth" illustrates the paragraph's claim about cost. Asked whether the passage meets a goal of persuading residents to support planting, the answer is yes, because each paragraph gives a reason with evidence.
Where people slip
Three habits carry forward. State the point before judging any sentence. Test reasons as hard as answers. And separate interesting from relevant, true from sufficient, and vivid from fitting. The next unit turns to order: where each sentence goes, how sentences connect, and how a passage opens and closes.
Your place on the trail
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Builds on
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