How about practicing a little of text comprehension while refreshing some essential writing concepts?
That is my proposal for you today. Furnished below, you will find an ACT English question that tests your global comprehension (which fundamentally means understanding the general meaning of what you are reading) and your understanding of authorial intention. However, in order to answer the question correctly, you will also need to know the characteristics of a persuasive essay.
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Wearing Jeans in School
In 1970, the school board in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, approved a dress code that prohibited students from wearing certain types of clothing. The school board members believed that wearing “play clothes” to school made the students lax and indifferent toward their school work, while more formal attire established a positive educational climate. When twelve-year-old Kevin Bannister wore a pair of blue jeans to school, he was sent home for violating the dress code.
Kevin and his parents believed that his constitutional rights had been violated. The United States District Court of New Hampshire agreed to hear Kevin’s case. His claim was based on the notion of personal liberty—the right of every individual to the control of his or her own person—protected by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. The court agreed with Kevin that a person’s right to wear clothing of his or her own choosing is, in fact, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The court noted, however, that restrictions may be justified in some circumstances, such as in the school setting.
So did Kevin have a right to wear blue jeans to school? The court determined that the school board had failed to show that wearing jeans actually inhibited the educational process. Furthermore, the board offered no evidence to back up its claim that such clothing created a negative educational environment. Certainly the school board would be justified in prohibiting students from wearing clothing that was unsanitary, revealing, or obscene. The court remained unconvinced, therefore, that wearing jeans would actually impair the learning process of Kevin or of his fellow classmates.
Kevin Bannister’s case was significant in that it was the first in the United States to address clothing prohibitions of a school dress code. His challenge initiated a review of students’ rights and administrative responsibility in public education.
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Suppose the writer’s goal had been to write a brief persuasive essay urging students to exercise their constitutional rights. Would this essay fulfill that goal?
A. Yes, because the essay focuses on how Kevin encouraged other students to exercise their constitutional rights.
B. Yes, because the essay focuses on various types of clothing historically worn by students as a freedom of expression.
C. No, because the essay suggests that the right to wear blue jeans was not a substantial constitutional right in the 1970s.
D. No, because the essay objectively reports on one case of a student exercising a particular constitutional right.
The Challenge
After spending time examining this passage on a sentence level for all the other questions associated with it, it's pretty challenging to have to zoom out and think about what is actually being said here. Plus, the answers all hit plausible notes.
Answer: D
Explanation
You’re being tested on how well you understand overall authorial intention – what the purpose and point of a given piece of writing are.
So what features would an essay urging people to act have in it?
It might be organized around a bit of activism.
It might tell the story of some protest or challenge to the order of the day.
It would have a clear point of view of who/what is right and who/what is wrong in a given situation or problem.
It would most likely either start or end with a directive to go out there and do something.
Does this passage do those things? It does tell the story of a legal challenge to established order. But it doesn’t do any of those other things. And, even if you can’t immediately picture what an essay urging action would sound like, you can check out the descriptions of this passage in the answers to see whether any of them actually fit what you just read.
Answer A is wrong because there is no mention of Kevin interacting with other students in any way.
Answer B is wrong because aside from jeans, there is no mention made of any other self-expressive clothing choices made by students.
Answer C is tempting because it agrees that the essay is not urging anyone to do anything, but the answer also says that the passage picks a side in the fight over whether jeans are a constitutional right. But the essay does no such thing, so this answer is out.
Answer D is the only one that actually describes this essay: it’s a simple, chronological, fact-based, neutral account of one court case.
Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/hardest-act-english-questions