The ACT Writing section, while optional for many colleges, plays a crucial role for those institutions that require it. Scoring well on this section demands more than just writing ability; it requires a structured approach, strong argumentation, and clear organization.
Unlike other sections of the ACT—such as Math or Reading, which follow more formulaic patterns—the Writing section is designed to assess a student's ability to critically engage with multiple perspectives and express a well-rounded argument.
While not all colleges weigh the ACT Writing score heavily, a strong essay can still help set a student apart in competitive admissions and scholarship processes. The good news is that with the right preparation and guidance, students can significantly improve their writing scores.
This comprehensive guide is designed to help students and tutors navigate the nuances of the ACT essay, providing a clear breakdown of the prompt format, scoring system, and effective strategies.
Whether you're a student looking to boost your essay score or a tutor aiming to guide your students to success, this guide will give you the tools you need to master the ACT Essay Writing section with confidence.
The ACT Essay section presents a unique challenge that requires students to analyze and respond to a specific issue. The essay prompt begins with a short passage that introduces a topic, followed by three distinct viewpoints, known as Perspectives. Typically, one Perspective supports the issue, another opposes it, and the third offers a balanced or neutral stance. Clear instructions are provided at the end of the prompt.
Students are given 40 minutes to read, plan, and write their response. If taking the paper-and-pencil version of the ACT, students will use unlined pages for rough work and lined pages for the actual essay. Only the content written on the lined pages will be evaluated. The essay must be written in pencil, as per the test guidelines.
The ACT Writing section is evaluated across four key domains:
Understanding the grading system of the ACT essay is just as important as knowing the overall ACT scoring process.
The ACT essay is evaluated across four domains, with each essay being read by two graders. Each grader assigns a score between 1 and 6 for every domain (1 being the lowest and 6 being the highest).
The scores from both graders are added together, then divided by 4 to calculate the final score. If the average score ends in .5 or higher, it is rounded up to the next whole number.
Achieving a high score on the ACT essay requires clear logic, strong structure, and varied sentence styles. Here's a five-step strategy to guide students through the writing process:
It’s crucial for students to correctly interpret the prompt. Help them break it down with these key steps:
The grader wants to see the student’s opinion clearly stated. Here’s how to express it effectively:
A well-structured essay includes an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Here’s how to break it down:
After outlining, guide students to jot down their main ideas on scrap paper. Once the argument is clear, they can expand on each point:
In the final minutes, students should:
First, let’s look at the introductions of both essays.
The introduction of the first essay effectively presents the argument and provides a strong foundation for the body. However, it has some structural issues, particularly in the first line, where the phrase “It is no secret… no longer…” feels awkward. This slightly diminishes the clarity of the introduction.
In contrast, the introduction of the second essay is shorter and more concise. It clearly outlines the key aspects of the essay and smoothly presents the pros and cons of the topic.
Next, look at the body.
The straightforward example, supported by numbers, effectively strengthens the argument—its clarity and persuasiveness make it hard not to understand or be convinced. Additionally, the essay is well-structured, with ideas presented logically.
The argument in this essay is sharper and more straightforward. What sets it apart is its broader perspective and business-like vocabulary, such as "economic implications," "depressed job market," and "a culture saturated with automation." Additionally, the balanced presentation of multiple viewpoints demonstrates the writer’s ability to consider all aspects before reaching a conclusion, showcasing a more mature approach.
While the conclusion of the first essay (Score 10) is effective, it’s not entirely free of errors. Nevertheless, its style is commendable, presenting clear reasons that are easy to follow.
The conclusion of the second essay (Score 12) is stronger in two key ways. First, it is comprehensive without any repetition. Second, it effectively uses the given Perspectives to form its own conclusion. Additionally, the choice of words, language, and overall structure are more refined and sophisticated.
You can also refer to the official ACT scoring rubric for insights.
Based on various ACT essay examples, most student mistakes can be grouped into four key categories. Here are the common errors and strategies to help your students avoid them:
Under the pressure of the test, students may misread the central issue and veer off on an unrelated tangent. Encourage students to re-read the prompt and cross-check their response against the key points mentioned to ensure they stay on track.
Students may also focus on peripheral matters instead of addressing the central purpose, often neglecting the keywords in the prompt. Have students underline key terms in the prompt to help them stay focused on the central issue.
Some students rely too heavily on personal anecdotes, which can make the grader believe the student is limited in their perspective. Advise students to use no more than one personal example and balance it with broader evidence or analysis.
A common mistake students make is downvoting an opinion without offering any analysis to support their stance. To avoid this, encourage students to underline each perspective in the prompt and ensure they address and analyze all viewpoints in their essay.
Another frequent error is failing to reference the given perspectives explicitly; students should quote or paraphrase each perspective briefly to demonstrate a well-rounded approach.
Additionally, some students oversimplify alternate arguments, assuming certain aspects are too obvious to explain. Students should summarize each perspective clearly and fairly before critiquing, ensuring they engage with all sides of the argument thoroughly.
A common issue students face is maintaining a smooth flow between paragraphs. Often, they make abrupt transitions without using proper connectors, which can disrupt the overall cohesion of the essay.
To help students avoid this, encourage them to plan the paragraph flow during their outline phase. This will ensure that each paragraph logically follows the previous one, with clear transitions and connections between ideas.
Another frequent mistake, especially under the time pressure of the ACT, is neglecting to include a strong topic sentence at the start of each paragraph. Without a clear topic sentence, paragraphs can become disorganized or unclear, making it harder for the grader to follow the argument.
To address this, have students practice starting each paragraph with the central idea or argument, giving their essay a clear structure and ensuring that each paragraph supports the thesis effectively.
Some students make the mistake of simply repeating their thesis throughout the essay without offering new insights, explanations, or evidence to support their argument. To help them avoid this, encourage students to use contrarian thinking by asking, "What could turn this completely wrong?" This approach will inspire creative thinking and help them develop more nuanced arguments.
As students race against the clock during the 40-minute writing period, they may struggle to come up with fresh ideas and end up repeating similar examples. To prevent this, introduce the SEP model (Social, Economic, Political). By framing their examples through different lenses—one focused on the social aspect, another on the economic, and the last on the political—they can add depth and variety to their argument, strengthening their overall essay.
As they say, there’s no better guarantee to success than to actually practice what you’re preparing for. Just like you’d arrange for practice ACT tests for your students, make sure they get adequate practice and guidance for the essay section as well.
While there are several dimensions to practicing the ACT writing section, here are the top three aspects you want to never miss out.
Always insist that your students practice under time conditions. The biggest risk of not doing so is your students might spend too much time planning the essay and then end up producing a poor quality essay, only because they ran out of time.
Understanding the prompt, listing out ideas, and organizing thoughts - each of these activities need time, but if students don’t enforce time limits, they would benefit very little from the practice.
No matter how good or bad the student is at writing when they start out, it’s important to always keep high-scoring sample essays as the frames of reference. If you allow the student to start by referencing a mediocre essay, it will be a bigger challenge for them to appreciate what it takes to write a superior, high-scoring essay.
And besides, it’s possible to score a perfect 12 in the ACT essay section only if you know what kind of writing attracts such a score, right?
Using sentences of the same length or structure throughout can indicate limited control over the craft of writing. To keep your essay engaging, vary your sentence structures.
Consider introducing ideas in the form of a question, or add flair by using imaginative prose that demonstrates mastery of language.
Equally important is a rich vocabulary. Avoid using overly complex words that don't fit naturally, but don't shy away from experimenting with interesting and precise vocabulary. A well-chosen word can add variety to your writing, and a touch of creativity will enhance its impact.
Here are the five important points from which tutors can coach their students for ACT writing.
Outlines: Create outlines for your students. Think of cloze tests, where students are required to use appropriate words to fill the blanks of a paragraph. Demonstrate, with the help of the skeletal outlines, how to write intros, the body of the argument, and the conclusion.
Starters: Choose a topic. Then provide words, phrases, or even sentences that can serve as the starters for the intro, the body, or the conclusion. Demonstrate how to make a smooth transition from one side of the argument to the other or from one paragraph to the next.
Structure your feedback so that it isn’t random or haphazard. Build a system around it so you cover everything.
Domain: Instead of generalizing, bind your feedback to each of the four specific ACT essay writing domains. Show the student how they haven’t used the language right, for instance. Or explain how they could have organized their writing better.
Highlights: Pick one area where the student did rather well and show what made that element shine out. Equally important, pick one area where the student fell considerably short. Explain what changes could have improved that part. That way, students will be able to build upon their strengths and avoid repeating mistakes.
You cannot overemphasize the importance of timing the writing section. Keep reminding the students that the ACT writing is essentially an exercise in disciplined creativity. Use the below two points to help your students prepare better.
Timing: Have them practice within time limits. In the first couple sessions, don’t lay too much importance on scoring. Instead, make sure they internalize the basic principles like understanding the prompt, organizing thoughts, and reviewing.
Chunking: Break down the writing into how much time they should allocate to planning, how much to write, how much to review and so on. Demonstrate with real examples, and hand-hold for a while so that students get a first-hand experience.
High-scoring and low-scoring essays have their own value, so use them the right way to help your students improve their essay writing skills.
Key areas: Discuss the high-quality and poor-quality essays with students. Show them what key aspects made an essay great or poor. Instil in them the ability to emulate good writing habits.
Self-scoring: Have students read and review actual essays. Then ask them to assign scores, as if they were graders. After that, have them compare the scores they assigned and the official scores. That will help them closely understand what kind of writing begets what score.
You can also carry out micro-practice sessions by focusing only on one specific area. That helps them strengthen their understanding of each element of an essay.
Quick analysis: Assign quick analysis drills with different prompts. Have students develop the ability to rapidly understand and analyze topics.
Summarize: Ask students to identify the main issue and summarize all perspectives in a sentence. Show them where they got it right and what they missed.
Mastering the ACT essay and improving scores requires strategy, structure, and consistent practice. Help your students grasp the ideal essay structure: a clear introduction, well-developed body paragraphs, and a focused conclusion.
As a tutor, guide students in using templates, analyzing prompts, and refining their arguments with clarity and depth. Working with templates, reviewing sample essays, and encouraging thoughtful analysis will significantly boost scores in a relatively short time.
Above all, regular timed practice is key to building both confidence and speed. With the right guidance and consistent effort, students will see real progress. It's not about perfection—it's about continuous improvement with each attempt.
See how EdisonOS supports ACT writing preparation.
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