The ACT writing test is the optional essay at the end of the ACT. It's often misunderstood, so here are the facts, from ACT's own descriptions, and a way to decide whether you should take it.
The format
- It's a 40-minute essay.
- You get one prompt that describes a complex issue and presents three different perspectives on it.
- Your job is to write an essay that develops your own perspective on the issue and analyzes the relationship between your perspective and at least one of the others.
You don't have to agree with any of the three perspectives, and you can partly agree with one. What matters is that you take a clear position and engage with the others.
Related: What to Expect on the ACT: Format, Scoring, and How to Prepare
How it's scored
Two independent readers score the essay using the same rubric, in four domains:
- Ideas and Analysis: generating productive ideas and engaging critically with multiple perspectives
- Development and Support: explaining and supporting your ideas with reasoning and examples
- Organization: arranging the essay so the relationships between ideas are clear
- Language Use and Conventions: clear, correct use of grammar, syntax, word choice and mechanics
Each domain gets a score from 2 to 12, and your writing score, also 2 to 12, is the rounded average of the four domain scores.
It doesn't affect your composite
The writing test does not affect your ACT composite score. The composite is the average of your English, Math and Reading scores. Your writing score is reported separately.
Should you take it?
ACT's advice is simple: some colleges require the writing test, so decide based on the requirements of the colleges you're applying to or considering. A practical approach:
- Check the testing policy of every school on your list, on each school's own admissions website.
- If any of them requires or recommends the writing test, take it.
- If your list is still changing, taking it keeps your options open, since you can't add a writing score to a past test date without retesting.
How to prepare
- Practice with ACT's published sample prompts, under the 40-minute limit.
- Spend the first few minutes planning: your position, how it relates to the given perspectives, and two or three supporting points.
- Use specific reasoning and examples, not general statements.
- Save a few minutes to proofread. Language Use and Conventions is one of the four domains.