1. Rhetorical Skills
ACT English

2. Rhetorical Skills Questions on style and editing. Transitions
Improving the passage not fixing errors

3. Suggestions… You don’t get points for reading the whole passage.
You can skip right to the underlined sections.
Use the answer choices to figure out what kind of question it is.
Sentence Structure
Grammar
Punctuation
Rhetorical

4. Transitions
Transitions are sometimes needed at the beginning of a clause, sentence or paragraph.
They help the writer move smoothly from one thought to another.
Three main types of sentence connectors:
But
Also
Therefore

5. But, Also, Therefore There are many different ways to saying these:
But (contradiction)
However, quite the contrary, despite, rather, notwithstanding, contrarily, on the other hand, on the contrary, although, yet, nevertheless.
Also (in addition)
In addition, for example, furthermore, another, and, first, second, moreover, by the same token, besides, so too, similarly
Therefore (cause and effect)
Hence, and so, thus, consequently, for example, because of, finally, in conclusion.

6. How to spot a transition question
The underlined portion is almost always at the beginning of the new clause, sentence or paragraph.
The answer choices help you spot transitions.
EX:
Funds provided by the Stafford program ar not considered scholarships; so too, they are part of the extended student loan system.
NO CHANGE
In addition,
Rather,
Moreover

7. Improving the Passage
Require you to choose a correct answer based on the purpose or the effect of the passage on the reader.

8. Improving the Passage Example:
I knew that it took about eight hours for the tides to change from high to low, sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides. [9] I didn’t have to wait to learn these things in school. In our house they were everyday knowledge.
If the writer were to delete the phrase “sixteen hours for a complete cycle of tides” from the preceding sentence (ending the sentence with a period), the essay would primarily lose a detail that:
A. shows how the narrator’s interests are different from the mother’s interests.
B. contradicts a point made earlier in the paragraph.
C. helps establish the setting for the essay.
D. displays the narrator’s knowledge of tides.

9. Organizing Questions Check placement of underlined word or phrase.
Reorder the sentences in a paragraph.
Reorder the paragraphs within the whole passage.

10. Organizing Questions Example:
After a while, she would pull up the net, and we would go home. Later, we would see her sitting at the kitchen table, peering at a drop of water through the lenses of her microscope from the bottle—watching the thousands of tiny swimming organisms.
The best placement for the underlined portion would be:
A. where it is now.
B. after the word lenses.
C. after the word microscope.
D. after the word bottle (but before the dash).

11. Style Questions
The largest number of style questions deal with redundancy.
Saying the same thing twice.
Ex:
The Vietnam veterans were recently memorialized by a memorial sculpture in Washington.
NO CHANGE
Memorialized by a
Memorialized with a new memorial
Memorialized in a recent