1. Say What?
ACT Rhetorical skills

2. Usage vs rhetorical skills
Where Usage skills tend to focus on smaller subparts of a sentence, 
Rhetorical skills broaden the scope to consider how sentences are constructed, and how sentences fit together with each other.
Relevance
Author intent
Organization
Conciseness and redundancy
Formality and tone

3. Relevance
This skill is deciding what the passage is about and whether a certain detail belongs in that category or not.
Look at example on next slide, Which sentences, if any, are irrelevant in the paragraph….

4. Relevance example
[1] My uncle explained to me that bonsai cultivation was part of our ancestors’ culture that could remain with me for my whole life. [2] He said that bonsai as old as Hoshi didn’t need much maintenance, but he would teach me what I needed to know. [3] He added that I could easily do everything necessary for Hoshi's care in my dorm room. [4] It’s funny to think that Hoshi is older than my great grandparents. Bonsai are grown from parts of normal-sized trees that are kept small by pruning and planting in small pots. [5] They thrive in only partial sunlight but need to be pruned several times per year and kept in temperatures that stay well above freezing year-round. [6] Bonsai also require careful watering, and Hoshi in particular needs to live outside in the summer to get the best light and inside in the winter because of the cold.

5. Author intent
For this skill, we need to be able to identify the writer's topic, point, or goal, and the ways she achieves it.
Author main goal questions are all presented in the same way, Suppose the writer had intended to write an essay about (something). Would this essay fulfill that goal?
A. Yes, because...
B. Yes, because...
C. No, because...
D. No, because...
As you can see, these questions require you to understand the main idea of the passage.
To answer them, you first have to determine if the main idea matches the intended main idea that's presented in the question. Then, you have to determine why the passage fulfills the author's intended purpose or why it doesn't.

6. Author intent examples

7. Author intent strategies
On the ACT English section, always save the main idea questions for last. After doing the other questions, you should be able to more quickly determine the main idea and have a better sense of what the passage is about. Luckily, these questions are normally at the end of a passage's set of question

8. Author intent steps 1. Determine the main idea
DO NOT REREAD; look at title and topic sentences
2. Look at the question again
3. Start with just the yes or no; eliminate half
4. State answer in your own words; match with best remaining two answers

9. Organization: transitional logic
Examples
Error: All through high school, we were inseparable; however, even our parents eventually became friends.
Corrected: All through high school, we were inseparable; in fact, even our parents eventually became friends.
Error: The painting is a fascinating work because, by representing women in such a novel way, it questions both representational art and traditional notions of femininity. Nonetheless, most critics agree that it is a groundbreaking work in the development of both cubism and modern art as a whole.
Corrected: The painting is a fascinating work because, by representing women in such a novel way, it questions both representational art and traditional notions of femininity. Indeed, most critics agree that it is a groundbreaking work in the development of both cubism and modern art as a whole.
The ACT wants to test our ability to transition between ideas within a sentence, a paragraph, or a whole essay.

10. Organization: Macro Logic
Macro-logic is the skill of putting the parts of an essay in the right order. Fortunately, on the ACT, there are tons of clues as to what order sentences and paragraphs should go in. Can you spot the out-of-place sentence(s) in the passage below?
[1] He wore a sailor’s uniform and used papers given to him by a free black sailor, showed his ingenuity and courage. [2] After a number of previous failed attempts, Douglass finally escaped to freedom. [3] He took two boats and two trains to get from Havre de Grace, Maryland to a safehouse in New York City, completing his journey to freedom in less than twenty four hours. [4] He received the uniform from Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore who later became his wife. 
If you said Sentence 4 is out of place, you were right. It should go after Sentence 1

11. Conciseness and Redundancy
There are times when saying something twice is needed: for emphasis, to review a difficult topic, or to explain something more clearly.
None of these apply on the ACT.
The two ways this skill is tested on the ACT is through wordy sentences and redundant sentences. They're related, but different.

12. Wordy Sentence Examples
Error: To travel around Berlin, we have the option of choosing many different transport systems; among them are the U-Bahn, or the underground rail system similar to New York’s Subway, and the tram, which is another form of transport that involves railways that have tracks on the streets.
Corrected: To travel around Berlin, we might take the U-Bahn, or subway; we could also take the tram.
Error: High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.
Corrected: Good schools enable people to learn more.
Error: With reference to the fact that the company is deficient in manufacturing and production space, the contract may in all probability be awarded to some other enterprise.
Corrected: The company may not be awarded the contract because it lacks production facilities.

13. Redundant Sentences Examples
Error: Many uneducated citizens who have never attended school continue to vote for better schools.
Corrected: Many uneducated citizens continue to vote for better schools.
Error: The eye of a storm is a region of mostly calm weather found at the center of a tropical cyclone.
Corrected: The eye is a region of mostly calm weather found at the center of a tropical cyclone.
Error: The teenage woman who wanted to audition was talented, but only sixteen years old.
Corrected: The woman who wanted to audition was talented, but only sixteen years old

14. Formality and tone
Every piece of writing has a level of formality, from none (a note passed in class) to maximum (official government or legal documents).
The skill here is understanding the formality of the text (which is always pretty close to a book you'd read in English class).
What's the informal phrase in the passage on the next slide?

15. Formality and tone example
Examples
Many cultures in recorded history have venerated and even worshipped the Sun. To some civilizations, the Sun represents all life; to others, the reason for the cycles of day and night. To Plato, the Sun represented the offspring of all that was good. In other myths, though, the Sun might have another kind of significance. It's for sure that the Sun carries great significance for many cultures both ancient and modern.
If you said "it's for sure," you got it! It's less formal than the rest of the passage, which sounds quite academic.

16. Carlisle assignment
Find two ACT English passages and subsequent questions (paper version or online whole test version would be best for this)
Read both passages and answer the questions. Next to each question, identify what type of question it was
Usage or rhetorical and what skill was needed
Finally, write a quick reflection discussing which type of question seemed odd or difficult for you