Hi everyone, I’m planning on taking the ACT with writing, but I’m having trouble finding a clear rubric or criteria for the writing section. Does anyone know what the graders are looking for, and possibly share some tips on acing this part?
The ACT Writing section is evaluated across four domains: Ideas & Analysis, Development & Support, Organization, and Language Use & Conventions. Two readers will evaluate your essay, each providing a score of 1-6 in each domain. These scores are then added together to give you a total score out of 12 for each domain.
1. Ideas & Analysis: This domain measures how well you critically engage with the given perspective. The key is to present a clear understanding of the topic and effectively generate insightful ideas related to the prompt. Analyzing the implications of multiple perspectives is crucial, as this criterion focuses on how comprehensively you can understand and dissect various perspectives.
2. Development & Support: This domain focuses on how effectively you argue your point. Grades will focus on how you use reasoning, evidence, and examples to support your ideas, and whether they flow logically and make sense together, as well as individually.
3. Organization: Organization refers to how logical your essay's structure is. Ideas should be smoothly linked, not only within sentences but between paragraphs as well. The intro should capture readers’ attention, and the conclusion should tie everything together neatly.
4. Language Use & Conventions: Your grammar, syntax, and punctuation. This domain also measures your vocabulary level, style, tone, and how effective your linguistic choices are for communicating your point.
One useful tip is to spend some time planning before diving into writing. Noting down your ideas and organizing them into a clear and logical structure will make your writing process smoother. Remember, while this score doesn’t impact your composite score, a good essay can still help show universities your effective writing and critical thinking skills.
If you're looking for some sample writing prompts, as well as tips on how to tackle them effectively, I'd check out this blog post from CollegeVine: https://blog.collegevine.com/act-practice-writing-prompts/. This post will hopefully give you a more concrete sense of what the grading domains look like in practice.
Good luck with your ACT writing!
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