{"id":4873,"date":"2016-01-14t11:30:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-14t19:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/?p=4873"},"modified":"2017-09-28t08:29:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28t15:29:25","slug":"act-english-organization-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/act\/act-english-organization-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"act english: organization questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
act english<\/a> essays are organization freaks; your english teacher would love them. if they don\u2019t have clear topic sentences, they want one; if sentences aren\u2019t in chronological order, they flip out. well not really, but your score might if you don\u2019t look out for these question types. so here are the most important things you need to know about organization questions on the act english section<\/a>.<\/p>\n there are three particularly common types of organization questions:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n if a question asks you to reorder sentences or paragraphs to present the most \u201clogical\u201d order, you are looking for one of two things: 1. chronology or 2. coherence.<\/p>\n chronology is pretty straightforward. if the passage is working through a biography of a famous person\u2019s life starting with their childhood and ending with their death, then you want to make sure a paragraph about their college years does not appear at the end. sometimes, chronology questions will be about putting seasons or other things with a clear order in line.<\/p>\n coherence means that every sentence should follow from the previous one in terms of how it builds on content. take a look at this challenging example:<\/p>\n what is the most logical placement for sentence 2? <\/em><\/p>\n (1) many scholars believe that thomas kyd wrote a play about hamlet a decade before shakespeare\u2019s famous play. (2) although kyd\u2019s \u201cur-hamlet\u201d is now loss, it is believed that it probably bore many similarities to kyd\u2019s the spanish tragedy<\/em>, or rather that the spanish tragedy <\/em>bore many similarities to it. (3) this is a revelation that surprises many fans who believe that hamlet<\/em> was solely a product of shakespeare\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n this is a tricky one, and you need to look closely at it. the best way to tackle a question like this is to paraphrase the essence of each sentence in your head. sentence 1 tells us kyd wrote a play about hamlet before shakespeare. sentence 2 tells us it bore many similarities to the spanish tragedy<\/em>. sentence 3 tells us that the fact that kyd wrote a play about hamlet surprises many shakespeare aficionados.<\/p>\n ah, ha, there\u2019s the kicker. it\u2019s not the stuff about the spanish tragedy<\/em> (sentence 2) that surprises shakespeare\u2019s fans. it\u2019s the fact that kyd wrote a play about hamlet. so this means sentence 3 should follow after sentence 1. and sentence 2 should be moved to after sentence 3. in order to answer these types of organization questions correctly, it\u2019s important that you review the main idea of the paragraph and make sure you pick an option that best accomplishes two things:<\/p>\n be wary of answer choices that are too broad or too narrow: the ones that seem to encompass more than what the paragraph talks about or only give one specific detail. let\u2019s jump right into an act example for this one:<\/p>\n as she got older, katerina did not find ice skating as appealing as she once did. though<\/u>, she cut back on her practice time and spent more time on other activities. <\/em><\/p>\n a. no change<\/p>\n b. consequently,<\/p>\n c. in fact,<\/p>\n d. furthermore,<\/p>\n on a question like this, we need to pick the transition that best communicates the relationship these sentences are trying to express. one way to handle this is to temporarily put a blank in the sentence where the transition is supposed to go, ignore the answer choices, and try to come up with your own connection \u2192\u00a0 katerina did not find ice skating appealing. ______, she cut back on her practice time and spent more time on other activities.<\/p>\n the connection between these two ideas is about cause and effect<\/u> (katerina didn\u2019t like ice skating so much anymore, so<\/strong> she cut back on her training), so we need a word or phrase that communicates this. words and phrases such as \u201cso,\u201d \u201cas a result,\u201d or \u201ctherefore\u201d would best achieve this goal and, so, answer choice b \u201ctherefore\u201d consequently fits in best with this group.<\/p>\n act organization questions fall under the rhetorical skills category tested on act english. you should check out our other posts on rhetorical skills questions: strategy questions<\/a> and style questions<\/a>. <\/p>\n grammar and usage is another category that you should definitely check out as well. for some grammar and usage practice, definitely check out our guide on act grammar rules<\/a>! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" act english essays are organization freaks; your english teacher would love them. if they don\u2019t have clear topic sentences, they want one; if sentences aren\u2019t in chronological order, they flip out. well not really, but your score might if you don\u2019t look out for these question types. so here are the most important things you need to know about organization questions on the act english section. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[10,11],"ppma_author":[24868],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
ordering sentences or paragraphs<\/h2>\n
\n <\/p>\nchoosing the best introduction or conclusion<\/h2>\n
\n
\n <\/p>\nchoosing the best transition<\/h2>\n
more act english practice<\/h2>\n