ENGLISH ACT Workshop

Triage NOW You know it—answer it! LATER Not sure—circle question and move on. NEVER No clue—Guess!

TWO PASSES First pass: Answer all questions you KNOW. Second pass: Answer the tough ones you circled.

POE Use the Process of Elimination  Read through all answer choices!  Try to eliminate wrong answers.  If you can eliminate at least 2, guessing becomes much easier.

Words of Advice Get plenty of sleep. Eat a healthy breakfast. Write in your test booklet Bring your  Watch  ID  Admission ticket  Calculator  Water  Snack

1.Identify the TOPIC 2. Use POE 3. Use Context. 4. Trust your ear, but verify. 5. Don’t fix what’s not broken. by noticing changes.

Practice Drill

VERBS Singular verbs end with S. Plural verbs do not. Examples: The kids love chocolate. The kid loves chocolate. The dogs eat a lot of food. The dog eats a lot of food.

Verb Tips Identify the subject Check the tense Be concise

Passive Voice Uses “to be” and preposition by Usually too wordy- not concise

Irregular verbs

Pronouns 1 st Person2 nd Person3 rd Person SubjectI, weYouShe, he, it, they ObjectMe, usYouHer, him, it, they PossessiveMy, mine, our, ours YourHer, hers, his, its, their, theirs

Pronoun-Antecedent Problems Every student must have their pencils. I never go to that place because they have stale bread. Politics is my favorite subject. They are such fascinating people. He ought to speak French well. He lived there for twenty years.

Pronoun Pairing Problems Him and her are dating. The doctor gave some medicine to my mom and I. Me and my friend are studying for the ACT. Please give they and I more homework.

Tricky Pronouns Singular: anybody, anyone, each, either, everybody, everyone, nobody, somebody, someone

Pronoun Tips Find the original Check the case Who versus Whom -Who- subject -Whom- object

Modifiers Adjectives- modify nouns Adverbs- modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs Comparison- er Superlative- est

Stop Punctuation Used between complete ideas Period Semi-colon Question mark Exclamation mark Commas to connect 2 complete ideas— combine with FANBOYS Vertical Line Test - Used to determine if the ideas before or after are complete thoughts.

Go Punctuation Used to slow down Commas:  to connect an incomplete idea and a complete idea  to create lists  to set apart unnecessary Information Colons Single Dashes Use vertical line test

Conjunctions although, as, because, if, since, that, until, what, which, while, when, where, who, whom Add a conjunction to make an idea incomplete, or take it away to make an idea complete.

Prepositional Phrases Prepositional phrases modify (describe) a noun. Look to the left of the PP to find the subject.

Apostrophes -Possession -single: add ‘s -plural nouns: add just an apostrophe -Contractions -It’s versus its -who’s versus whose -they’re versus their

Transitions Contrast: although, but, despite, even though, however, nonetheless, nevertheless, or, yet “Keep going”: and, because, finally, furthermore, moreover, since, so, thus, therefore

Be concise! If you don’t need it, don’t use it.

EXCEPT/LEAST/NOT Questions Use POE NO CHANGE is almost never the answer

STRATEGY Questions All revolve around the purpose of the text. Look at the reasons in the answer choices.

ORDER Questions Work best with POE Sentences: -Don’t try to re-order all the sentences yourself -Look for transition words -Use POE Paragraphs: -There will be a warning at the start of the passage -Placement of new info

Grading the Passage Identify the purpose in the question Look at the reasons in the answer choices