ACT® · English: Sentence Structure and Formation
Reading an Enhanced ACT English Item Stem
Many English items now print a question above the four choices, naming the exact rule being tested. Read that stem first and it tells you what a correct answer must do before you even look at the choices.
Older English items just underlined a stretch of text and left you to guess what was wrong with it. Now many items add a stem above the choices: 'Which choice best maintains the sentence's parallel structure?' or 'Which choice corrects the subject-verb agreement error?' That stem isn't decoration. It names the rule being tested, so you already know what job a correct answer has to do before you compare a single option.
Read the stem before you reread the underlined words. If the stem says 'parallel structure,' your eye should go straight to the other items in the list and check their grammatical shape, not sound out which choice feels smoothest. Take 'The volunteers sorted the donations, labeled the crates, and [loading the truck] before noon.' The first two verbs are past tense, simple form: sorted, labeled. The stem tells you the third has to match, so 'loaded the truck' wins, no matter how natural 'loading' sounds on its own.
This habit connects directly to answer elimination. With four choices instead of five, there's less room to lean on gut feeling, so a named task matters more, not less. A choice can be perfectly grammatical and still wrong because it doesn't do what the stem asked, like a vivid sentence that fails to introduce a paragraph's timeline. Reading the stem first turns four options into a filter: toss anything that doesn't answer the actual question, then check grammar on what's left.
Key terms
- stem
- The question printed above a set of answer choices that names the specific rule or task being tested.
- parallel structure
- Matching grammatical form across items in a list or series, such as all verbs in the same tense.
- subject-verb agreement
- The rule that a verb's number must match its subject's number, singular with singular and plural with plural.
- NO CHANGE
- The answer choice that keeps the underlined text exactly as it was originally written.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does a stem like 'Which choice best maintains the sentence's parallel structure?' name the rule being tested?
- How it worksWalk me through reading an ACT English stem first and the underlined words second, instead of the other way around.
- Worked exampleWalk me through answering 'Which choice corrects the subject-verb agreement error?' for 'The crate of oranges were heavy.'
- Common mistakeWhy isn't NO CHANGE a trap option that the ACT almost never makes the right answer?
- Going furtherWhat changes about eliminating options when an English item offers four choices instead of five?
Check yourself
End of topic.