<p>Okay, my D and I have had it with the ACT and their crazy writing scores. She's a strong writer, she's followed & studied every possible guide, and she's tried it <em>three</em> times and just got back her results...to find out that all of her work translated to one extra point. To an 8. </p>
<p>Well, LOL, that's it...she's living with it...but, dang, I truly don't get how anyone gets into the double digits....</p>
<p>What’s a “strong writer”?</p>
<p>On SAT and ACT, if you write like in a high school English class, you will receive a lower score. Why? Because they WANT students to write an explicit five-paragraphed essay. You can’t be superfluous and pretentious.</p>
<p>Write:</p>
<p>A clear intro
THREE clear paragraphs
A clear conclusion</p>
<p>and make sure these are distinct from each other, using a transitory sentence or two. </p>
<p>I got an 11 on the writing for the ACT. ACT writing isn’t like a typical AP Lit/Lang writing assignment. The essays that score the highest need to be clearly organized into three or four main points, with real support for each point. (ACT likes to see real-world examples. I remember I even wrote down some statistics I remembered about the topic.) As the above poster said, the point of the ACT essay is NOT to sound flowery and artistic. It should read more like a journalism/opinion piece than a Cormac McCarthy passage. </p>
<p>A “strong writer” is a writer who writes well. 
</p>
<p>And on the advice, I hear you both…makes perfect sense…it’s exactly what she’s done now 3 times…hey it is what it is what it is…an 8 puts her in the top 15% of all takers…and that’s going to have to be good enough! </p>
<p>I followed one of the guides on here and got a 10 my first time. One of the main things was not to be flowery- give strong supporting evidence for your claim.</p>
<p>I just kinda let the words go and got a 10. Definitely feel like they like maybe a little less structure and to just see a writer do their thing.</p>
<p>If she’s done it like that and still isn’t making the score you thinks she deserves, maybe her problem is in the support she gives for her points. Plenty of writers have perfectly structred essays with valid points, yet the support they give is lacking. I’ve seen that a lot of essays turn into just a bunch of words with no real, strong argument (again, real world examples are paramount to ACT graders. They’d rather see that than any other form of support.) As I said, Cormac McCarthy writes “well,” which is your definition of a good writer, but a passage from “All the Pretty Horses” certainly wouldn’t get a 12.</p>
<p>If she’s done it like that and still isn’t making the score you thinks she deserves, maybe her problem is in the support she gives for her points. Plenty of writers have perfectly structred essays with valid points, yet the support they give is lacking. I’ve seen that a lot of essays turn into just a bunch of words with no real, strong argument (again, real world examples are paramount to ACT graders. They’d rather see that than any other form of support.) As I said, Cormac McCarthy writes “well,” which is your definition of a good writer, but a passage from “All the Pretty Horses” certainly wouldn’t get a 12.</p>