ACT English — does this sentence earn its place?

The ACT English test is not only about commas and verb forms. A large part of it asks a different kind of question: what is this sentence doing here, and would the paragraph be better without it? This material covers that half of the test — rhetorical skills — and nothing else. Punctuation, grammar and usage are handled by the other materials in this category.

Twelve questions, each built the same way. A short paragraph of three or four sentences is quoted in full, then one question is asked about it. The four options are always complete statements, never punctuation variants, so the work is reading rather than proofreading.

The bank is deliberately built out of the five things this part of the test actually asks. Three questions ask whether a named sentence should be kept or deleted, with two reasons to keep and two to delete — the skill being to pick the reason that is true of this paragraph rather than the reason that sounds most generous. Three ask which of four proposed sentences would accomplish a stated purpose: introduce the paragraph's subject, give an example of a claim just made, or conclude it. Two ask what would actually be lost if a sentence were cut, where every wrong answer names something the paragraph would still have. Two ask whether a proposed addition belongs, where the addition is true, interesting and about a different subject. And two hold the paragraph up against a goal it was given and ask whether it meets it.

The last pair is where most of the difficulty sits. A paragraph can be clear, accurate and well built and still fail a goal it never addresses — a description of a park expansion that never mentions money does not explain how the expansion will be paid for, however good it is on its own terms. Each of those questions also carries an option that reaches the right verdict for a reason the goal never raised, because arriving at "no" by the wrong route is the commonest way to lose a point here.

Every explanation says first what the paragraph is doing, then gives each wrong option the specific reason it fails: true but about something else, accurate but not what the purpose asked for, or a reason that would apply to any sentence at all. Twelve flashcards cover the underlying tests — what makes a sentence relevant, the difference between interesting and relevant, what an introduction and a conclusion each have to do, and how to measure a paragraph against a stated goal.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with ACT, Inc., which owns the test, and it is not an exam centre.

• Decide whether a sentence should be kept or deleted on the basis of what the paragraph is doing, not on whether the sentence is interesting
• Choose the added sentence that accomplishes a stated purpose — introducing a subject, giving an example, or concluding — when every option is factually accurate
• Say precisely what a paragraph would lose if a named sentence were removed, and recognise when the answer is nothing
• Judge a proposed addition that is true and interesting but belongs to a different subject
• Test a paragraph against a stated goal by naming what the goal would require it to say, and spot the right verdict reached for the wrong reason
• Refute a wrong option with a nameable reason rather than a general sense that it does not fit

Written for the rhetorical-skills half of ACT English, following the skills the test's own published description names: the relevance of a sentence to its paragraph, the effect of adding or deleting material, and whether a passage accomplishes a stated purpose for a stated audience. Every paragraph, person, firm and study in the bank is invented for this material; nothing is taken from any ACT publication or released test. The paragraphs are short by design — three or four sentences, quoted in full inside each question — so the material works as plain text with no reading passage to consult elsewhere.