Is the ACT Essay an argument?

**From a student** 

• • * "After having just taken the ACT and earning a 34 my first time out, including a perfect 12/12 score on my essay, I'd like to help everyone out on the essay. Getting a perfect score on the essay is not very difficult with some practice and I guarantee that any decent English student can at least get a double digit score with some level of work. Below is a list of guidelines that you absolutely must have in your essay if you want to get a perfect score. When I say must, there are no ifs, ands, or buts. You must absolutely have the following in your essay. Also, a couple of these will seem a little rudimentary and expected, but other requirements are less straightforward at first glance."      *Information here was borrowed from a blog post. See original post here. 

1. A Hook 

Your essay needs to start off with a hook, or lead, that is laid out well and makes total sense. Usually, I like to start off with a sentence like a couple of the following below.

• "What has America come to?"

• "What has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Now, when you include this hook, remember that this part of your essay isn't just one sentence. You must make a clear transition to your thesis, which is the next requirement of the essay.

2. A Thesis

Need I explain this? Make sure that the reader can easily spot this part of your essay and make sure to include a concise list of the main points that you are going to make in the essay for each body paragraph.

3. Thesis & Topic Sentence of Each Body Paragraph for an Outline 

Now, this here is the key. You must, and when I say must, I mean absolutely must be able to take your thesis and each of your introductory sentences of each of your body paragraphs and be able to form an outline of your essay. So in other words, if the reader only had those three or four sentences to look at, it is absolutely mandatory that he be able to fully understand the points you are making in your essay.

4. Refutation of the Counter Argument 

If you forget everything else, at least make sure that you refute the counterargument. By this, I use the phrase of...

• • "While some may say that protecting the environment will lead to job losses, such an a statement fails to take into account the fact that without an environment at all, there wouldn't be any jobs to speak of. Therefore, it is completely nonsensical to think that the actions of the EPA are economically limiting, for without their preservation measures, the destruction to our natural resources would wreak even more havoc on this country's fiscal standing."

You may use "While some may say" and I would highly recommend that you do use that phrase. For each of your body paragraphs you could address the counterargument in the manner I have laid out above.

5. Smooth Transitions 

While it's not the most important part of your essay, it is much easier for a reader to grade an essay that flows nicely from one paragraph to the next. Please make sure that each paragraph blends into the next and never, ever use the any of the following phrases to begin your conclusion...

• Ultimately,

• Overall,

• As a result,

• After everything,

I think you get the point. Using any of those words to start off your conclusion will make it impossible for you to get a perfect score on the essay. In terms of transitions, you may use the...

• "Not only does.....but also so does...."

But this phrase may only be used once throughout your entire essay, and if you can think of a better way to phrase this transition, then please implement that other construction.

6. A Zinger 

I'm pretty sure that most of you haven't heard of a zinger, so I shall explain what it is. A zinger is just like a hook, except it is used at the last sentence of the entire essay. I usually like to use quotes that I know off the top of my head or ones that I make up on the spot. If you ever make up a quote on the spot, when attributing that quote to a certain person, make sure that you don't credit Gandhi or FDR. Credit someone who many people have heard of, but don't really know, such as Henry Cabot Lodge or Adlai Stevenson. Even Adlai Stevenson is stretching it a bit, but remember, it's English teachers who are grading these essays, so you'll probably be fine. Here is an example of a good zinger.

• "And when it comes to solving our societal woes, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'"

That basically raps it up for what is required of you. In terms of some tips for writing ACT essays, I would advise that you at least implement some of the following in your writing.

1. Making up Ideas 

Just as I said that you can make up quotations, you can also completely make up content to use in your essays as well. This is exactly what I did for the essay that I got a perfect score on when I said that Lloyd Bentsen used to challenge his teachers in school on political and social issues, something that eventually turned him into one of the most successful politicians in his homestate of Texas. In reality, I have no way of knowing if any of that was true, but it made good content for my essay and I got a perfect score using that "example." Again, just make sure that you don't make up something like that for George Washington or Abraham Lincoln because the reader will know when that information is false.

2. General Style & Format of the Prompts 

After doing about twelve or so practice essays beforehand, I realized that every single ACT prompt is basically the same: the government wants to create some new mandate for schools, and do you support that mandate or do you oppose that mandate? Every single time, all I do is write the same essay over and over again. I always oppose the mandate and use a real life example, such as with the Lloyd Bentsen one for the first paragraph and then always talk about how this mandate is an invasion of civil liberties and could lead to authoritarianism in the second paragraph. I guarantee that if you use that same format every time, then there will be no question marks when you go to write and you will most definitely write a better essay.

3. Explain Each Idea 

In your essays, you're bound to mention small ideas to back up your main examples. While it's impossible to be perfect and literally explain every little detail you mention, if you just elaborate for half a sentence when you mention something as small as the constitution to back up the invasion of civil liberties piece, for example, I guarantee that it will make everything clearer for the grader reading the essay who isn't necessarily in the same mindset or situation that you are in while you are composing this essay.

That's basically it. If anyone else who has gotten a perfect score on the ACT Essay also wants to chime in and give some help to others, please post a reply with your tip or piece of advice and I will do my best to incorporate your ideas into this first post in the thread.