ACT English: Mastering the Production of Writing Questions

Topic development

The way a writer builds and explains the main idea of a paragraph or passage through chosen details, their specificity, and their connection to the point.

Relevance

The quality of a detail directly supporting a paragraph’s focus and the passage’s overall purpose rather than drifting into unrelated information.

Controlling idea

The main idea or focus that a paragraph is built around, whether stated directly or implied.

Support

The examples, explanations, evidence, or descriptions that develop and reinforce a paragraph’s controlling idea.

Purpose

The writer’s main goal in a passage, such as to inform/explain, describe, narrate, or persuade/argue.

Local purpose

The specific job a paragraph or sentence performs within a passage, such as defining a term, giving an example, or explaining a process.

Effectiveness

How well a piece of writing achieves its goal by being clear, focused, logically arranged, and appropriately detailed.

Clarity

The quality of making meaning easy for the reader to understand without unnecessary confusion or guesswork.

Specificity

The use of precise, concrete detail instead of vague or overly general information.

Consistency

The quality of matching the passage’s tone, level, point of view, and overall purpose throughout the writing.

Adding material

Inserting information only when the passage needs a definition, example, evidence, clarification, or a bridge between ideas.

Deleting material

Removing a sentence when it repeats information, goes off-topic, contradicts the focus, or weakens the flow.

Revising material

Improving useful content by making it clearer, more precise, better placed, or more appropriate in tone.

Placement

Putting a sentence where its function fits best, such as after the claim it illustrates or after the term it defines.

Organization and sequencing

The arrangement and order of ideas so the reader can follow the writer’s thinking smoothly and logically.

Chronological pattern

An organizational structure that presents events or steps in time order.

Cause-and-effect pattern

An organizational structure that shows how reasons lead to results.

General-to-specific pattern

An organizational structure that begins with a broad claim and follows with supporting details or examples.

Problem-to-solution pattern

An organizational structure that introduces an issue and then presents a response or remedy.

Introduction

The opening of a passage that establishes the topic, gives context, and signals what the passage will do.

Conclusion

The ending of a passage that provides closure by reinforcing the main idea or explaining its significance without starting a new major topic.

Transition

A word, phrase, or sentence that shows how one idea relates to the next, such as addition, contrast, cause, or sequence.

Unity

The quality of staying focused on one main idea in a passage and one controlling idea in each paragraph.

Cohesion

The smooth connection between parts of a text through clear references, logical transitions, and consistent wording.

Pronoun clarity

Using pronouns so the reader can easily identify exactly which noun each pronoun refers to.