Strategy Questions | English for ACT PDF Download

Introduction

On the ACT English test, strategy questions fall under the category of "Rhetorical Skills" questions. There are a total of 75 questions on the English test, of which 35 are Rhetorical Skills questions, and about 11 to 15 of these questions are strategy questions. Unlike specific grammar or usage questions, rhetorical skills questions focus on larger issues related to a writer's choices in communicating ideas effectively to an audience. These questions may require test-takers to help improve a sentence or paragraph for clarity, relevance, or audience appropriateness. The most common type of strategy question asks test-takers to determine the impact of adding, revising, or deleting a phrase or sentence.

Here’s an excerpt from an ACT English passage and a strategy question:
The city experienced a blizzard that caused banks to shut down for days during the following winter, leading to a 20 percent surge in ATM usage. Citibank used this event as a launchpad for their enduring “The Citi Never Sleeps” campaign, which featured posters and billboards depicting customers struggling through snowdrifts to reach Citibank ATMs. The triumph of Citibank's marketing strategy inspired other banks to follow suit, and soon, ATMs became ubiquitous in every major city across the globe.

• If the writer were to delete the underlined portion, deleting the comma and ending the sentence with a period, the paragraph would primarily lose:
  (a) an explanation of why so many people used ATMs during the blizzard.
  (b) descriptive detail about the imagery of the advertising campaign.
  (c) a restatement of an idea expressed earlier in the paragraph.
  (d) an explanation of why ATMs became necessary in the late 1970s

(The answer is B. See below for the strategy for approaching a question like this one.)

The ACT English test often includes questions that ask whether a writer should add or delete certain elements in a given passage. Here is an example of such a question stem:

At this point, the writer wishes to add the following sentence:

• The Liberator was founded in 1831 and was published in Massachusetts.

Should the writer make this addition here?
(a) Yes, because it gives the reader specific information regarding The Liberator.
(b) Yes, because it helps the reader understand why Garrison could not speak about slavery from personal knowledge.
(c) No, because the reader can infer the date The Liberator was founded from the paragraph.
(d) No, because it distracts the reader from the focus of the paragraph.

The examples given above demonstrate that strategy questions on the ACT English test are focused on the content of a selected section rather than grammar or usage. It's important to approach these questions with consideration of the entire passage, as well as the specific paragraph in which the question is located.

How to Approach ACT English Strategy Questions

1. Read well above and below the referenced portion.

While answering ACT English questions, it is usually recommended to proceed one question at a time. However, for strategy questions, it is important to read the text carefully both before and after the highlighted section. The information that comes before or after may provide the necessary clues to answer the question accurately. In case the question asks you to consider the passage as a whole, be sure to read the entire passage before answering the question.

2. Focus on whether or not an underlined portion is on topic.

The majority of answers to ACT's strategy questions involve adding sentences that clarify or support the development of a critical point and removing those that don't. If a paragraph lacks an introductory or concluding sentence, the test may require you to add one. Similarly, if there is a lack of connection between ideas or a supporting detail that helps readers understand the content, the test may ask you to add it. Conversely, if there is information that is off-topic or redundant, the test may require you to remove it.

3. For “Yes/No” Questions, make eliminations based on the rationale first.

For questions like the second example given above, the reason provided after the "Yes" or "No" is referred to as the rationale. In these types of questions, it is best to initially disregard the "Yes" or "No" response and instead concentrate on eliminating reasons that are incorrect. To illustrate, let's revisit the question about The Liberator mentioned earlier:

At this point, the writer wishes to add the following sentence:

• The Liberator was founded in 1831 and was published in Massachusetts.

Should the writer make this addition here?

(a) Yes, because it gives the reader specific information regarding The Liberator.
(b) Yes, because it helps the reader understand why Garrison could not speak about slavery from personal knowledge.
(c) No, because the reader can infer the date The Liberator was founded from the paragraph.
(d) No, because it distracts the reader from the focus of the paragraph.

Even before reading the passage, it is possible to exclude option B as it does not provide any information about Garrison or his inability to speak about slavery based on his personal knowledge. Hence, it cannot be the answer to the question.

Here is the paragraph under consideration (with the relevant portion highlighted):

• Angelina and Sarah were unique in abolitionist circles not because of their oratorical and literary talents or their energetic commitment to racial and gender equality, but because of their firsthand experience with slavery and its negative effects on slaves. [ ] While abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Theodore Weld, whom Angelina married in 1838, could give impassioned speeches about the need to abolish slavery, they could not personally testify to its impact on African Americans or their masters.

Having read this paragraph, we can rule out answer choice C because there is no mention of the founding date of The Liberator elsewhere in the paragraph. So now we are left with answer choices A and D and must use the principles outlined in point #2 above to determine whether the proposed sentence is relevant and contributes to the development of the paragraph. Since this paragraph is primarily focused on the contributions of Angelina and Sarah to the abolitionist movement, it is not necessary to provide a great deal of detail about The Liberator. The newspaper is only mentioned briefly, so the correct answer is D.

4. Don’t overthink

When a question requires you to determine what information a sentence will gain or lose by adding or deleting specific content, remember to think of it in terms of what exactly will be gained or lost. For example, for the first question mentioned above, think to yourself, “This sentence will lose the fact that posters and billboards showing customers trudging through snow drifts to get to Citibank ATMs.” This means that the correct answer is B because it eliminates the specific descriptive detail of the campaign. It's important not to overthink or rationalize any other answer choices as true, and to take a very literal approach.

Once you become familiar with them, strategy questions on the ACT become relatively straightforward since the test tends to follow a consistent pattern with these types of questions. Recognizing the key components to look for is a significant step towards success.