Back to: ACT English
The ACT English test includes a number of questions that will “require you to demonstrate effective language use through ensuring precise and concise word choice and maintaining consistency in style and tone.” These questions make up about 15-17% of the exam and focus on issues like word choice, diction, and wordiness.
Each passage on the exam will include questions that ask you to determine the effectiveness of specific words or phrases. For questions like this, you’ll need to make sure the text is not just grammatically correct but also fits the tone and style of the passage. While tone and style can be difficult to define, it’s fairly easy to spot inconsistencies. For example, consider the following description of erosion:
Erosion refers to a geological process in which layers of earth are worn down and redistributed by wind or water. This process happens over the course of hundreds or even thousands of years. It made some crazy big canyons! Over time, new geological formations develop…
The phrase “crazy big canyons” and the exclamation point probably jumped out at you as weird, right? That’s because they conflict with the tone and style of the passage. The passage is informative and fairly serious, so a conversational, upbeat comment seems out-of-place.
The following sections address some of the specific ways knowledge of language will be assessed and provide strategies for successfully responding to questions in this category. You may notice that some of this information and several of the strategies overlap with other portions of this guide and will help you prepare for responding to questions in the other categories of the ACT English exam as well.