1. 10 CONCEPTS YOU NEED TO KNOW IN ORDER TO ACE THE ACT ENGLISH USAGE/MECHANICS RHETORICAL SKILLS

2.  PACING: 9 minutes/passage  (5 passages – 15 questions per)  ALLOWANCE:  -5/passage = 20  -4/passage = 23  -3/passage = 26  -2/passage = 29  -1/passage = 32 BUT FIRST…

3.  40/75 QUESTIONS USAGE/MECHANICS SKILL# OF QUESTIONS PUNCTUATION10 GRAMMAR & USAGE12 SENTENCE STRUCTURE18

4.  35/75 QUESTIONS RHETORICAL SKILLS SKILL# OF QUESTIONS STRATEGY12 ORGANIZATION11 STYLE12

5.  COMMAS (,)  Separate parts of a sentence (transition words, clauses, modifiers, and other add-ons).  Provide breaks, similar to yield signs.  Separate items in a list  Ex1. Before the test, Max had a hearty breakfast.  Ex.2 Bob, our contractor, is always late to the job site.  Ex3. Max had two waffles with syrup, an egg, and a glass of OJ. POWER TIP = Consider taking commas away, not adding more of them (42-7) - (47-36) - (44-17) 1. PUNCTUATION

6.  SEMICOLONS (;)  Separate two independent clauses (i.e. complete sentences) that are closely-related.  Ex1. Max had a hearty breakfast this morning; it was just the fuel he needed to ace the ACT.  Ex.2 Bob is always late to the job site; his supervisor is unhappy. POWER TIP = Look for complete sentences on both sides (46-34) – (42-3) 1. PUNCTUATION

7.  COLONS (:)  Introducing something  Creating a list  Ex1. The weather was typical for Chicago: windy with light flurries.  Ex2. For breakfast this morning, Max’s mom brought to the table the following items: two waffles with syrup, one egg, and one glass of OJ. POWER TIP = Look for complete sentence on the left side (43-14) 1. PUNCTUATION

8.  DASHES (—)  Introduce sudden action  Add info the author left out  Ex1. Maria was walking her dog when, suddenly—CRASH—a car struck another head on.  Ex2. In the clanging acoustics of the room, this sound—a kind of veech—echoed around grandly. – from Geoff Dyer POWER TIP = Be sure the sentence is still complete, even without the stuff inside the dashes (43-14) 1. PUNCTUATION

9.  APOSTROPHES (‘)  possession  contraction  Ex1. The dog’s bone.  Ex2. it’s, they’re POWER TIP = Know that whatever comes before the apostrophe, specifically, is what is in possession (153-6) 1. PUNCTUATION

10.  Common Issues  Who/that, when, where – use them correctly.  Parallel – one:one not one:you.  Disagreement – pronoun:antecedent.  Case – who vs. whom, etc. POWER TIP = The most common of these issues is non-parallel structure involving one and you. Pay careful attention for these key words. (152-3, 159-51, 156-33, 45-27) 2. PRONOUNS

11.  Common Issues  Disagreement – subject:verb.  Tense – be consistent with the time frame.  Conjugation – swim vs. swum. POWER TIP = ALWAYS be on the lookout for subject:verb disagreement, especially when you think the answer is NO CHANGE. (155-22, 154-17, 158-44) 3. VERBS

12.  Common Issues  Switch Errors – these should be obvious. POWER TIP = Look for endings in –ly to signify an adverb. These are easy points. (154-19) 4. ADJECTIVES/ADVERBS

13.  Common Issues  Wrong idioms – look for the proper pairings of prepositions. We look things “up” in the dictionary, not “down.” We show up “on” time, not “at” time. POWER TIP = Let your grammar ear tip you off that something doesn’t sound quite right. It is a well- trained machine. (47-35, 48-44) 5. IDIOMS

14.  Common Issues  Commonly confused – precede vs. proceed.  Clear expression – is it the right word for the context?  Homonyms – its vs. it’s, their vs. there (*its’ does not exist!). POWER TIP = The trickiest of this group is its vs. it’s. Make sure you have it down. (46-30, 153-10) 6. WORD CHOICE

15.  Common Issues  Transitions – does it create the right logical relationship between ideas?  Run-ons – two complete sentences separated by a comma.  Fragments – subject + verb + complete thought = sentence. POWER TIP = with transitions, look for the odd man out. Re-reading your answer back in will usually help you avoid selecting fragment answers. Know the schematic for run ons = complete, complete. (47-40, 152-1, 152-2) 7. SENTENCE STRUCTURE

16.  Common Issues  Adding/Deleting – logically, should this be added? If you were to delete it, what would you lose?? What you had there! Trust the obvious answer.  Success of Essay – Did the author achieve what he/she meant to in writing this essay? Example: “Suppose the author set out to...did the author achieve this?”  Ambiguity – make sure you always know to whom the pronoun, etc. is referring. Must be clear. POWER TIP = For adding/deleting, underline the focal area in the question – this is a great clue. Answer yes/no Success of Essay questions by first deciding between yes or no. (152-5, 155-23, 157-40, 160-60 (tough not having read the whole thing), 45-24) 8. EFFECTIVE WRITING

17.  Common Issues  Placement of words, sentences, and paragraphs – occasionally things will be out of order. Questions involving the proper placement of adverbs will be tough, in general. POWER TIP = Look for clues about placement. If the sentence in question is discussing a topic, find out where that topic was first introduced. Look for transition words, etc. (159-49, 158-42) 9. ORGANIZATION

18.  Common Issues  Too many words - verbosity  Redundancy – the same idea repeated. POWER TIP = To fix redundancy, you will usually have to take one of the two ways of saying the same thing away. (42-2, 45-29, 157-37) 10. WORDINESS