ACT® · English: Argumentative Essays, Short Essays, and Whole-Passage Questions
Whole-Essay Questions on a Short Passage
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does a short essay let you hold its entire outline in view while judging a goal question?
- Worked exampleFind whether a 185-word essay on a sea wall met the goal of explaining why one town paid for it.
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't a short essay drop the hardest topic-development items?
- Going furtherWhat changes about a goal question when the essay runs 340 words across five paragraphs?
Check yourself
Your turnmedium1 of 3
The following question asks about the preceding passage as a whole. A 185-word essay reports that Hallvard's Cove lost 30 homes to a storm surge, that the town voted a levy of 421 dollars per household to build a sea wall, and that a fisherman moved back once the wall went up; its last paragraph gives the wall's height and the contractor's name. Suppose the writer's goal had been to explain why one town paid for a sea wall. Would this essay accomplish that goal?End of topic.