ACT English Prep: How to Approach Rhetorical Skills Questions
Success on the ACT English section depends on a student’s ability to complete two types of questions: grammar questions and rhetorical skills questions. Rhetorical skills questions ask students about the meaning of the story, rather than it’s composition. These questions can be frustrating because, at first glance, they appear to be quite vague. However, there are proven approaches that help guide students through these questions, and, with increased practice, these are question types that any student can excel on.
There are two categories of questions that show up in the ACT English section. There are questions that ask about grammar and the way the sentences are structured, and there are rhetorical skills questions that ask about the bigger meaning and subject of the story and the way it is composed as a whole.
Although it may take some review and repetition, English grammar questions are pretty straightforward. Once you understand how to appropriately punctuate two independent clauses that are stuck together and you know all the roles that commas play, you're ready to rock any questions that ask about those grammatical concepts. The point is that grammar concepts can be drilled and memorized. Grammar questions are black and white: the ACT can’t change the rules of English grammar. That makes these questions pretty easy to study for.
In contrast, rhetorical skills questions are those that ask about the story’s message. These questions can be more difficult to get the hang of. Part of the reason for this is that there appears to be a lot of gray area. For some of these questions, all of the answers choices may seem like they could work as a good answer. While this may appear to be the case, this is not so. The ACT can not give you multiple answer options that could be argued as being correct; there always has to be one clear correct answer. With rhetorical skills questions, the key is becoming familiar with the language that the ACT writers use and picking out any KEYWORDS that can direct you to the correct answer.
In this post, we are going to explore the different types of rhetorical skills questions that you’ll see throughout the ACT English section. We will explore common language that the ACT will use and how you can best approach these types of questions to eliminate any confusing, gray area.
Types of Rhetorical Skills Questions on the ACT & How to Approach Them
Specific Criteria Questions:
This is a common type of question that will show up throughout all 5 of the English stories. These questions ask you to identify which answer would best complete some specific job. The question will identify what specific job they’re looking for, and you’ll be tasked to determine which answer option best accomplishes it.
Take a look at this example question:
What is it asking?
Question 65 (above) gives you specific criteria that you are trying to match. You have to pick the answer that emphasizes that Paucton’s bees lead healthy lives at the opera house.
How you should approach the question:
There are two key things you should do when working through this type of question:
First, you should pick out any keywords that you’re trying to match. There will be words in the question that identify what it is you’re really looking for. In the question above, your keywords are “leading healthy lives.”
Secondly, you should ONLY read the underlined portion of the sentence and the answer options. Unlike grammar questions, when you want to be sure to read the entire sentence before answering, with this type of question the context is going to make it harder. Only look at the answer options and the underlined portion.
Once you’ve done those two things, use the keywords that you’ve already identified. You can read the answer options (not forgetting to include the NO CHANGE option that’s already in the story) and determine which of those best fits to emphasize bees “leading healthy lives.”
Look at just your answers:
cared for
thriving
present
noted
Does one of those jump out as “leading happy lives" ? It should! THRIVING is the best answer here, as it most strongly emphasizes that the bees are doing well. In fact, it is the ONLY option that has any positive connotation at all. By looking specifically at your keywords and only considering the answer options (rather than the entire sentence or paragraph), you can make this question much more straightforward than it might initially seem.
Take a look at another example of a criteria question:
For question 47 (above), start by identifying the question’s keywords. For this specific question, the keywords are “drifting passively.”
Now look to your answer options and ONLY the underlined portion. DO NOT consider any further context than these pieces.
Here are your answer options:
moving up and down
their bubbles peeking through the water’s surface
wherever the water and wind take them
often in groups that travel together
Looking ONLY at these options, does an answer pop out as a best fit for “drifting passively” ? One answer should jump out at you: wherever the water and wind take them. That is the correct answer. It is the only answer option that tells us that the snails are passive in any way.
Keep in mind the two steps to approaching these types of questions: 1) pick out the keywords, and 2) read only the underlined portion and the answer options. If you apply this method to any criteria-specific ACT rhetorical skills questions on the English section, you’ll find it easy to work through the question and arrive at the answer that the ACT likes best.
Delete Underlined Portion:
These questions require you to determine what the purpose of specific underlined information is. By determining why the information is included in the first place, you’ll be able to figure out what the sentence would lose if this information were left out. Another way of phrasing this would be “what is the main idea of the underlined portion?”
Similar to the criteria-specific questions that we mentioned earlier, you ONLY want to consider the underlined information as you work through this type of question. Reading the entire sentence or paragraph may give you too much context and make the question more difficult, so make sure to hyper-focus only on the part that you’re being questioned on.
Take a look at this sample question:
For question 64 (above), you’re being asked what would be lost if you remove the underlined chunk of text.
For this question, you want to start by only considering the underlined text: “packed with icebergs”
Next, you want to consider your answer options, but you want to pay close attention to what we are going to refer to as the CLASSIFIER WORD in the answer options.
What does that mean? If you look at your answer options above, you’ll see that there is a word that classifies the underlined chunk into some category. The category is different for each answer option. Answer choice F calls the information “an indication,” G says it’s an “explanation,” H says an “example,” and J is a “reason.”
CLASSIFIER WORDS IN ANSWER OPTIONS
F: INDICATION
G: EXPLANATION
H: EXAMPLE
J: REASON
By dissecting the answers in this way and considering the CLASSIFIER WORDS, you’re going to help yourself narrow down your options and rule out some wrong answers. Remember that every single word in an answer explanation has to match for it to be the correct answer. The ACT will frequently give you answer options that might be 90% right, but unless every single word matches the story, it can never be the correct answer.
In looking back to the answer choices for the question above, ask yourself if “packed with icebergs” is a phrase that could fall into the four CLASSIFIER categories. It certainly is not explaining anything, so answer G does not work. It also isn’t indicating or reasoning. Your best answer choice based just on these words is H: “packed with icebergs” is an example of something.
Once you’ve determined what classifier word you think is the best fit for your answer (sometimes there will be two answer options that use the same classifier word), make sure to consider the remainder of the answer. For this question, answer choice H’s explanation makes complete sense, so that is the best answer for this question.
A similar type of question may ask you about deleting the PRECEDING SENTENCE. Preceding means BEFORE, so this type of question will require you to analyze the entire sentence that came prior to the question and determine what would be lost. You can approach this question in the same way, starting by looking for classifier words to help you rule out any wrong answers.
Change Order of Phrases:
These questions will ask you to change the order of the sentences of a paragraph so that they make the most sense. Take a look at question 66 (below). It is asking you where to put sentence 4, denoted with the [4] in the story, to make the story make the most sense and flow the best.
The best way to approach this type of question is consider all of the answer options. Try plugging sentence 4 into each of the four options your answers give. It’s possible that a clear answer will jump out at you just by the way the story flows.
If there is not a clear answer, consider the role of the sentence. Is it working to add supporting details and evidence to the paragraph? If so, that would make you assume that it should show up somewhere in the middle of the paragraph. In contrast, does the added info seem to be working as a broader introduction or concluding phrase? If so, then you can probably expect it to show up either at the beginning or end.
For this specific question, the correct answer is WHERE IT IS NOW. When you read the paragraph, there is a clear flow of different stages of a timeline being referred to. It doesn’t make sense to begin the paragraph with the new information, as it is detailed evidence rather than broader information, and where it is makes the most sense for the story.
Similarly, there may be an occasional question that asks you to reorder the PARAGRAPHS of the entire story instead of just the sentences in a particular paragraph. You can approach this type of question in the same way. Consider the roles of the different paragraphs: there should be clear introduction and conclusion paragraphs, as well as those that are meant to offer detailed evidence. Then consider the flow of information and the timeline. What order makes the most sense to convey the message?
Add Info: Should I do it? Where?
There are two types of questions that fall into this category. The first type will give you a phrase or sentence and ask you to determine if it SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be added to the story. The second type will tell you that the author wants to add certain info; it will ask you where the best place is to put the new info.
Let’s look at the first type: should I add it or shouldn’t I?
Take a look at question 14 below. You’re given a sentence of new information, and you’re being asked to determine if this sentence should be added to the end of the paragraph [5] on the left (at the spot at the end with 14 in a box).
How do you decide if it’s a good idea to add it? Well, now you have to consider more of the context of the story and determine if the new information will fit with the paragraph.
Use what you know about writing a paragraph to help you work through this question. You know that a well-written paragraph should include a topic sentence, supporting evidence, and then end with a conclusion sentence that wraps up the paragraph’s main idea. This is a great place to start. This question is asking you about the end of the paragraph - this is where a concluding sentence should go. Does the new info in the question seem like a concluding sentence? No! This new information is not very broad, and it seems to be adding new details to the paragraph rather than summing it up.
These are two-part questions. The first thing you need to figure out is if YES or NO is the correct answer. Notice below how two answer options start with YES and two with NO. This will always be the case. If you can first figure out if YES or NO is correct, you’ll be able to eliminate 50% of your answer options as incorrect.
We already determined that this new sentence doesn’t seem like a good fit to put at the end of the paragraph, so we can eliminate both YES answer options.
Once you’re down to your two answer options, consider the explanations closely. Remember that every single word needs to match in order for the answer to be correct. The answer to question 14 is H. This makes sense because the new information seems out of place and not relevant at that specific point of the story. H is a better explanation than J because J states that the new information “conflicts with the idea that the brothers have a strong musical background.” The new information is unrelated to the brothers’ musical background, so this answer can be ruled out as well.
Now let’s look at the other type of added info question: Where should I put the new info?
This type of question will provide you with new information that is not already included in the story. You’ll be tasked with figuring out the best place to put this new information. Take a look at question 15 (above). This is an example of a question that gives you new information and asks you where it should be placed. The different answer options correspond with places in the story where letters A, B, C, and D have been placed. You can see where spot [D] is noted in the paragraph in the photo.
The key to this type of question is remembering that there MUST be some clear reason that a certain spot is the RIGHT spot to add new information. For these questions, it may seem like many places could make sense to add the info, since it is bound to be about the same subject as the story or paragraph being inquired about. For that reason, you want to make sure to once again look for KEYWORDS. There will be a direct link somewhere in the story.
For the question above, the correct placement is [B]. Though you can’t see this paragraph in the photo, spot [B] shows up in a paragraph that is all about the two brothers and their history, starting with their childhood. It makes the most sense that information about the brothers as teenagers would best fit with other information about their childhood and upbringing.
If you are ever uncertain about which is the best location for the added information in this type of question, you can consider a couple of things to help try to guide you to the answer. First, consider the main ideas of the different paragraphs. You can determine this by looking at the topic sentence and concluding sentence. Secondly, look for any words that match directly within the answer options and the different areas of the story. It’s possible that the correct answer may reflect some similar words and language as the part of the story where it belong.
Main Idea of Passage:
These questions generally show up at the very end of the story and are prefaced with a note that warns you that the question “asks about the preceding passage as a whole” (see below).
As you’ll notice in the below example, these questions are always going to be two-part questions. The first part will be to determine if the answer to the question is either YES or NO. There will always be two answer options that say YES and two that say NO.
When it comes to approaching this type of question, the first thing you want to do is trust your gut. You’ve just read through the entire English story, so chances are you have a good grasp of what the story was about. When you read the question, you are likely going to be able to answer the YES/NO part of the question easily. LISTEN TO YOUR GUT. If you instantly think YES, then stick to the YES answer options. If your gut tells you that YES is the correct answer, DO NOT spend time reading the NO answer options. The ACT writers are good writers, and they know how to word answer options in a way to make them appealing to students. Do yourself a favor and rule out the two answer options that do not go with your gut YES/NO answer. Do not even read the two in the category you disagree with.
Once you’ve determined if you believe YES or NO to be correct, dissect the two answer explanations that you’re left with. Remember that every single word has to match in order for the answer to be correct. Sometimes the answer will be obvious, but other times it will be less clear. Consider every single word thoughtfully.
There you have it: how to defeat the different types of rhetorical skills questions that show up on the ACT English section. Now what??
Practice, practice, practice! Getting familiar with the language used on rhetorical skills questions and practicing approaching them is the best way to get better at these types of questions. You may run into other variations of the same types of questions that we covered here, but if you remember the steps we’ve covered above, you’ll be able to tackle any rhetorical skills questions thrown your way.
Good luck, and happy prepping!
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