English: Rhetorical Skills for the ACT Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !On "add/delete a sentence" questions, not evaluating whether the sentence serves the passage's stated purpose — the question always tells you what goal to evaluate
• !Choosing longer, more "impressive-sounding" answers — ACT rewards concision and penalizes redundancy, so the shortest grammatically correct answer is often correct
• !Not reading the entire paragraph before answering an organization question — the correct placement of a sentence depends on context you can only get from reading the whole unit
• !Treating style questions as subjective — ACT Rhetorical Skills questions have objectively correct answers based on the passage's established tone and purpose

Study tips

• 1For "add or delete a sentence" questions, always identify the stated goal first ("adds relevant information that supports the main argument"). Then test each choice against that goal — not against your own opinion.
• 2Whenever ACT offers "OMIT the underlined portion" or "DELETE the underlined sentence" as an option, check it first. If the passage is clearer or more concise without the underlined text, OMIT/DELETE is often correct.
• 3For transition questions (choosing the best word to begin a sentence or connect paragraphs), identify the logical relationship between the ideas: contrast, cause-effect, sequence, or elaboration.
• 4Read each passage introduction — it typically tells you the author's purpose and audience, which guides all Rhetorical Skills decisions in that passage.

Sample ACT English: Rhetorical Skills questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real ACT questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   A student is writing a passage about renewable energy. The final sentence of the third paragraph reads: "Solar panels are also known as photovoltaic cells." The question asks: Given that the passage is intended to argue for increased government investment in renewable energy, should this sentence be kept or deleted?

   • AKept, because it defines an important technical term
   • BKept, because solar energy is mentioned throughout the passage
   • CDeleted, because it shifts the focus from the argument to a definition that does not advance the investment claimCorrect
   • DDeleted, because it introduces a topic not mentioned earlier in the passage
   Why this answer?

   The stated purpose is to argue for government investment, not to define technology. A sentence that merely defines "photovoltaic cells" without connecting to the investment argument does not advance the passage's purpose. ACT Rhetorical Skills questions always hinge on alignment with the stated purpose, not on whether information is factually correct or interesting. (Illustrative.)

2. 2

   Choose the best transition word to begin the second sentence: "The new bridge reduced commute times by 40%. _______, the construction project went significantly over budget."

   • AFurthermore,
   • BSimilarly,
   • CHowever,Correct
   • DTherefore,
   Why this answer?

   The first sentence is positive (reduced commute times). The second sentence introduces a negative consequence (over budget). The relationship is contrast, so "However" (concessive contrast) is the correct transition. "Furthermore" and "Similarly" signal continuation or addition. "Therefore" signals a logical consequence — but the budget overrun is not caused by the commute improvement.