The Grass Roots for the ACT English Exam Presented to Ms. Ausley s Junior English classes Created by Tara Seale & Julie Stephenson, Bryant (Ark.) Public Schools Overview Use logic and do NOT rush. ACT English passages are a collection of short student essays with typical student mistakes. 5 Passages with 75 questions = 9 minutes per passage Read the passage as if you are editing a student passage Have an answer in your head before you look at the answers to avoid "meaningful distractors." 1
Types of Questions Usage 1. Agreement Subject/Verb Pronoun Antecedent 2. Punctuation Commas (4 rules) Semi-colons Colons Dashes 3. Shifts Tense Active to Passive From one subject to another (point of view shift) Types of Questions Cont. Rhetorical Logical decisions Relationships among ideas, sentences, and paragraphs Wordiness (use concise language) 2
Wordiness The question usually asks what should you do with the underlined portion. First, ask yourself if it is relevant, if not, you should omit. Next, ask yourself if it is redundant, if so, omit. Finally, select the shortest answer, for example, "Due to the fact that" can be replaced with one word, "Because." Subject/Verb Agreement Subject/Verb questions are usually separated with phrases to confuse agreement. Cross out all prepositional phrases. Singular verbs end in S (e.g., is, has, was) Plural verbs do NOT usually end in s. (e.g. are, have, were) The woman with all the dogs walks down my street. Cross out and ignore "with all the dogs" because it is a preposition. Woman is singular, so it will take a singular verb, walks. 3
Singular Subjects The following words are always singular: anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, and something Everybody knows Aimee. Knows is a singular verb - ends in s. Plural Subjects The following words are always plural: both, few, many, and several Both are in question. Are is a plural verb - doesn't end in s. 4
Pronoun Antecedent Agreement Prounouns must agree in number and gender with their antecedent. Examples: Each of the girls puts her stuff into the car. Neither of the girls brought her umbrella. Both of the girls brought their umbrellas. The difference in how we talk and write We would probably say: Someone left their book. But we should write: Someone left his or her book. 5
4 Comma Rules 1. Insert commas after introductory stuff at the start of a sentence (more than 3 words). After long hours of hard work, the students felt disappointed and frustrated. 2. Insert commas to separate unnecessary stuff from the rest of the sentence. Gabe, the class president, asked the principal to reschedule the dance. 4 Comma Rules Cont. 3. Insert commas between 2 sentences joined with FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or yet, so). The senior class sponsored a homecoming dance, but the bad weather kept people home. 4. Insert commas after each item in a series. Gabe promised that the dance would include a DJ, decorations, and refreshments. 6
Semi-colon 1. Complete sentence; complete sentence. Mary ate contaminated chicken; she got sick. 2.Use with conjunctive adverbs. Jimbo likes to play football; however, he also likes to play baseball. 3. Simplify a series. Ben likes big, green apples; smallish, sweet Florida oranges; and toasted, salted almonds. Colon 1. A colon can be used to join 2 sentences. Complete sentence: complete sentence. 2. Can introduce a series or a long quotation, but only if it is a complete sentence first. The Daily News contains four sections: news, sports, entertainment, and classified ads. 7
Dashes and Hypens Dashes are used in pairs and act as a strong comma. The boys - Andrew, Joshua, and David - left the party early. Hypens are used with 2 or more words that act as a single modifier for a noun. He is an all-around athlete. The thirteen-year-old boy was too young to drive. Quotation Marks Periods and commas go inside quotation marks. Quotation marks are used for the titles of chapters in books, poems, articles in magazines, episodes of tv shows, or song titles from a CD. My favorite poem is "To An Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman. 8
Other things to consider Maintain Verb Tense - do not shift. If it starts in present tense, stay in present tense. Point of view - do not shift. If it starts in 3rd person, stay in 3rd person. Scoring If you miss one question per passage, you will score a 33. If you miss two questions per passage, you will score a 29. 9