If you’re currently prepping for the June 8th or July 13th ACT (or even a more distant ACT test date!), this post’s for you…AND for your sanity!
Because if my decade-plus experience in the test prep field has taught me anything, it’s that standardized tests are rarely the ONLY thing a student is working on at a given time. You’re also possibly studying for APs and finals, keeping your GPA up, and participating in all manner of sports playoffs / theater performances / year-end concerts!
It’s a LOT for one high schooler to handle. And that’s where I come in: I work with students to help them raise their scores on the SAT and ACT in the most time- and energy-efficient ways possible. This gets them a “congrats!” letter from their top-choice colleges….AND time to spare for their high school academics, passions, and purposes—all without tearing their hair out with stress!
So it’s with that eye towards efficiency that I want to share with you one of my favorite tips for nabbing a few more points on the ACT English section. This strategy can be quickly learned and quickly applied on test day!
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Sentence Addition and Deletion Qs: What Are They?
2. How to Decide if You Should Add, Delete, or Keep a Sentence on the ACT English
3. An Example
4. Conclusion
Sentence Addition and Deletion Qs: What Are They?
Many questions in the ACT English section don’t test you on grammar per se, or even ask you to form complete sentences. Instead, they focus more on the logical cohesion and structure of a passage as a whole. Those of us in the test prep field think of these as “Rhetorical Elements” as opposed to “Grammar” or “Standard English Conventions.”
One of the most popular types of Rhetorical Elements questions found on the test is what I call an “Add/Delete” Question. (And in case you were wondering: yes, there used to be similar questions on the SAT, but with the move to the Digital SAT, Add/Delete Qs got the axe.)
This kind of question can take one of two forms:
1. “The writer is considering ADDING the following sentence at the specified location. Should s/he or shouldn’t s/he, and why?”
or
2. “The writer is considering DELETING the underlined sentence/phrase. Should s/he or shouldn’t s/he, and why?”
Here’s the thing: they’re asking the SAME QUESTION, just in different ways. They’re merely asking, “Is the sentence we’re looking at RELEVANT to the rest of the paragraph?” That’s it!
If the sentence IS relevant, you want it in the paragraph, so you either ADD it or DON’T DELETE it.
If the sentence is NOT relevant, however, then you do NOT want the sentence to stay in the paragraph, so you either DELETE it or simply DON’T ADD it in. So far so good?
How to Decide if You Should Add, Delete, or Keep a Sentence on the ACT English
Here’s where Kristina’s magic formula comes in. In any given Add/Delete Question, you should follow these four steps to determine if the underlined sentence is relevant to the rest of the passage.
Step 1: Read the sentence that comes before it.
Step 2: Read the sentence in question.
Step 3: Read the sentence that comes after it.
Step 4: If the middle sentence sounds “fine” or if you don’t even notice it at all, it’s RELEVANT (as far as the ACT is concerned). If it sticks out like a sore thumb, it’s NOT RELEVANT.
But how do I know if it’s “fine”?: the “Beige Chair” trick
Call to mind, if you will, a fancy house or restaurant or hotel lobby that you’ve been to in the past. Chances are, there’s probably a piece of furniture there that you never would have selected if it were going to be the only furnishing in a room. I call this the Beige Chair.
Who wakes up and says, “Know what I’m extremely excited to add to my living room today?! A boring beige chair!” No one, that’s who. Nonetheless, beige is one of the most popular color choices for chair fabric. Every furniture store has it on their menu of options. There was probably even a beige chair in the interior design of one of those magnificent spaces you were thinking of—you just didn’t notice it before. Yet that chair is essential; it pulls the space together.
Not every single item in a room can be big and loud and bold. It’d be too overwhelming. So, in a way, the fact that you don’t even notice the beige chair means precisely THAT it’s doing its job! (And that it needs to stay.)
“Beige Chairs” are essential to ALL writing—including the writing sections of the ACT English section.
Sometimes there’s a sentence that’s not exciting, but moves the passage or the paragraph along. It provides a bit of new information without being dazzling in style or content. This is what I jokingly call a “Beige Chair” sentence.
So if you proceed through the four steps of an Add/Delete Question that I laid out, and you don’t even NOTICE anything at all…that means the sentence that the test is asking about is a boring “beige chair” sentence that’s doing its job…and it STAYS.
Irrelevant Sentences Are Like a neon Green fountain
The reverse situation is when you read the three sentences together (the sentence BEFORE, the sentence in question, and the sentence AFTER)…and your reaction is feeling confused, furrowing your brow, or shaking your head as you think something along the lines of “Huh?! What does that have to do with anything else?”
If this is your reaction to a sentence, you do NOT keep it. That’s like a lime green fountain in the middle of someone’s family room. IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! Time to kick it to the curb!
How to Pick the Right Reason for Erasing or Not Adding a Sentence
The Add/Delete Question also asks you to identify why a given sentence should be deleted. And there’s only ever one reason to get rid of a sentence on the ACT: because the sentence was off-topic.
Now, the test may phrase this reason in a million different ways: a sentence “blurred the focus,” it “didn’t address the subject,” “it strayed from the content,” etc.—but they all mean the same thing.
On the other hand, the correct reason for deleting/not adding a sentence is NEVER that the sentence got one small detail wrong. In other words, you don’t get rid of the lime green fountain in the middle of the living room because the fountain should actually be neon orange. NO. You get rid of the lime green fountain because there shouldn’t be a fountain AT ALL.
ACT Add/Delete Hack Example
Let’s put this strategy into practice now, shall we? Let’s say I get to an English section question that says:
“The writer is considering DELETING the underlined sentence. Should the writer do this, and if so, why?”
Using the four-step process I spelled out above, I’m going to read, all in a row, the sentence that comes BEFORE the underlined sentence, the underlined sentence itself, and the sentence AFTER. Then I’ll use my sense of whether the middle sentence is relevant to draw my conclusion about whether and why it stays.
Here’s an example of all three sentences together, where the middle one seems “fine” (is a “beige chair” sentence)…and therefore STAYS:
[1] Hermes is a deity, or god, in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. [2] He is considered the messenger of the gods and the protector of human travelers, thieves, merchants, and speakers. [3] Known for his quickness, Hermes is able to move freely between the mortal and divine worlds, aided by his winged sandals.
On the other hand, here’s an example of three sentences together, where the middle one sticks out terribly and makes us cringe (i.e. stands out in the room like a “lime green fountain”)…and therefore NEEDS TO GO:
[1] Hermes is a deity, or god, in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. [2] Aphrodite and Athena are also gods in the Ancient Greek pantheon. [3] Known for his quickness, Hermes is able to move freely between the mortal and divine worlds, aided by his winged sandals.
In this second sample passage, your answer should be “Yes” to deleting the sentence.
But don’t get tripped up in the next part and pick the wrong reason why!
Here’s an answer choice that provides the WRONG reason to delete (the “neon orange fountain” reason):
“Yes, because the sentence mentions Aphrodite and Athena, when it should have mentioned Zeus and Hera.”
NO! Don't get bogged down in these details!
On the other hand, here’s an answer choice that provides an appropriate reason to delete:
“Yes, because this sentence blurs the focus of the paragraph, which is about Hermes.”
Ready to ace those add/Delete questions now?
So, with just a few minutes’ worth of learning, and the help of my unique perspective, you’re now ready to pick up some extra points on the ACT English section! You’re welcome :)
And if you want a TON more tips like these that will help you achieve your target score in the less stressful and most efficient way possible, consider working with me. It’s my job to streamline your test prep and/or college apps so that the ONLY problem you face come senior spring is the one that many of my clients are currently facing—choosing among their MULTIPLE top-college acceptances!
