Great Tips When Writing Your ACT Essay

Is there a certain test section that's making you consider taking ACT test prep classes in Chicago? Are you dreading having to take the math portion. Are you more worried about English?

Regardless, it can be easy to underestimate how difficult the essay portion of the test will be. Some people assume writing will be the easiest part of the test, but many will end up scoring lower than they had originally hoped.

Essay writing can be difficult, especially when you don't have a lot of time to prepare your material.

ACT Essay Tips

Here are some tips for doing well and raising your score in this section:

Use the five-paragraph format

To make the essay portion as easy as possible, make sure that you stick to the standard five-paragraph format.

Some students try to make their essays longer because they think it'll look more impressive, but...
a short and well-written essay will look better than a long and meandering one.

Have an opening paragraph, three paragraphs devoted to any points you want to make, and a final paragraph to wrap everything up.

Decide what perspective you want to have

If you're taking an ACT essay portion, it's safe to assume that you may have to present your view on a certain topic.

Whether you're talking about lowering the speed limit or the merits of the death penalty, make sure you know what side you want to take and how you want to present your argument.

A lot of people can accidently end up contradicting themselves when the write an essay because they didn't think their arguments through well enough.

After you decide what to say, you should prepare to…

Outline your Essay

Your teachers weren't making you do outlines before you wrote book reports and essays just to take up your time.

An outline can be your best friend for organizational purposes and, if you want to rock the essay portion of the ACT, you should outline your essay before you start to write it.

Write down all of the points you want to make, and number them to see when you want to mention them.

It may make sense to talk about certain ideas and topics before others, and seeing everything on paper can help make organizing your essay much easier.

Our friendly staff at Chicago Academic are more than experienced in helping their students what to prepare for the ACT test. Contact us today and see how our personalized tutoring can help you!