ACT Writing: Ideas & Analysis

The writing section — or the essay — is the fifth section of the ACT that is optional for students to take. This optional section of the exam is administered after all four of the multiple-choice sections have concluded. Your score on the essay will not affect your composite ACT score, or any of your scores on the other sections of the exam. You may need to take the writing section for scholarships or college admissions, so make sure to check with the places that you are submitting your ACT scores to see if they require the essay! ✅

What to Expect from the ACT Essay Section

The ACT essay section is quick — only 40 minutes in length — and consists of one essay prompt. The prompt will describe a complex issue and provide three different perspectives for you to consider. In your essay, you will develop your own perspective on the issue and analyze the relationships between your chosen perspective and other perspectives. You may adopt one of the perspectives given in the prompt, or construct your own unique view. The perspective you select will not influence your score. 

What the ACT Writing Section Grades You On

Your writing will be analyzed by two graders based on four categories: Ideas & Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions. You can score up to six points in each section. Since there are two graders, each section may score up to 12 total points. Your overall ACT writing section score will be calculated as the average of the four section scores, with the highest possible score of 12 and the lowest possible score being a 2. ✍️ 

Let’s break down the ideas & analysis grading criteria to help you get as many points as possible on exam day!

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🤓 Mastering Ideas & Analysis Using the ACT Rubric

✏️ How to Approach Ideas & Analysis

For the ACT ideas & analysis section, you need to achieve these four things to get a 6 on the ACT essay according to the ACT rubric:

• Engage critically with multiple perspectives on the provided issue
• Include nuance and precision in thought and purpose in your thesis
• Establish and employ an insightful context while analyzing the issue and its perspectives in your argument
• • Examine implications, complexities, and tensions, and/or underlying values and assumptions in your analysis While these sound complicated, they aren't so bad once we talk through each aspect! 

📚 Engaging Multiple Perspectives 

When engaging multiple perspectives, your goal should be to adopt a specific perspective and analyze it in the context of the other provided perspecties in effective manner. It's best (timewise) to use one of the given perspectives (typically, there's one that sounds the most logically palatable). Afterward, I would recommend structuring your three body paragraphs to discuss the other two perspectives with your perspective as your final body paragraph  — more on this in the organization guide too! By including your perspective in the final body paragraph, you set up your essay for success.

It’s important that you effectively respond to both of the other perspectives, providing an example of what the argument may look like and how it proves false. Then, you want to connect your argument to the contrasting perspectives by analyzing why your viewpoint makes more sense logically.

In the final body paragraph reflecting your perspective, you should add additional detail to your perspective while also providing a rationale why your perspective is the best of the three provided perspectives.

💡 Writing a Nuanced and Precise Thesis

This one is pretty simple — you want a complex thesis that simultaneously gets your point across concisely. You want to make sure you balance both nuance and precision. Don't bog your thesis down with unnecessary details, but don't gloss over potential limitations of the perspective you've chosen either — you don't want your thesis to restate the given perspective verbatim! 

Your thesis should directly answer the prompt, and you should include wording from the perspective provided by the prompt while leaving room to discuss potential downfalls of the perspective you're writing about.

🤔 Employing Insightful Context 

To help develop a strong thesis and essay overall, you can include context in the introductions to build your analysis and show knowledge of the topic. Feel free to cite examples from history, current events, or literature. By including a simple fact outside the prompt, you can boost your ideas & analysis ACT score! 

🧠 Analyzing Implications, Limitations, and Tensions

This aspect of the ideas & analysis section includes many concepts, but in reality, you imply "implications, limitations, tensions, values, and assumptions" all the time in your writing without even realizing it! 😉

Implications have to do with answering the question "who is affected?" — for instance, the implications of greater cell phone use could be that people become less communicative in person. 

When discussing the limitations of a perspective, you’ll discuss how that argument may exclude ideas that have not yet been mentioned. For instance, an argument for the internet to be banned for those under age 16 would have the limitation of reducing online education. You’ll typically include limitations before you conclude each body paragraph. Similarly, tensions may discuss contradictions within the perspective.

Finally, you’ll include ‘values and assumptions’ within the final body paragraph discussing the perspective you agree with. All this means is that you are explaining the thought process behind why your perspective is the strongest! 💪

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📝 Review

To re-cap, the main steps in order to craft an effective essay for the ACT and maximize your Ideas & Analysis score are:

• • Choose a perspective on the given issue and construct a clear and nuanced thesis.
• • Compare and contrast the perspective you have picked with the other perspectives given in the prompt.
• • Demonstrate understanding of the ways the perspectives relate to one another — include facts and information beyond what is given in the prompt.
• • Analyze the implications, limitations, and potential contradictions of each perspective — make sure to discuss the values that make your chosen perspective the strongest.

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🎁 Wrap-Up

Ultimately, the ACT writing section is not so bad, especially with practice and knowledge of what the readers are looking for ahead of time. After reading through this guide, you can craft effective ideas and incorporate strong analysis in all your future essays — ACT or not!

Check out Fiveable for all of your ACT, SAT, and AP needs; if you need help with any of those areas, we’ve got your back! At the end of the day, you’ve got this writing section in the bag, and we’ll be manifesting a ​high score for you!

Need more ACT practice?

Fiveable has you covered! Check out these articles that tell you all you need to know about each ACT Subject! Good luck 👏