Text placement (sentence)

A common but often challenging question on the ACT goes something like this:

The author wants to place the following true sentence in the passage. At what point would this sentence best be placed?

How good are your editing skills? This chapter will help make sure you’re a pro before test day.

This kind of question is called a text placement question. Specifically, this is a text placement (sentence) question. In a text placement (sentence) question, you’ll be asked to “place” a sentence in the right spot in a paragraph.

The ACT is making sure you can create a logical flow of ideas within the passage. It may sound complicated, but the good news is that there will almost always be direct clues in the sentence that link it with the sentences around it.

In other words, it’s not just What sentences does this make the most sense next to?, it’s also What words in the perspective sentence directly relate to the words in sentences around it?

Text placement (sentence) example

Let’s look at an example.

Read this paragraph:

[A] The first—and as yet only—available 3D-printed medicine is Spritam, made by Aprecia Pharmaceuticals. [B] Spritam was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2015 to control seizures brought on by epilepsy. [C] The printer lays down thin sheets of powdered medication, and droplets of water-based fluid bind. [D] This approach squeezes in more of the active ingredients than standard manufacturing, which compresses the drug and other components by stamping the preparation into a mold using a machine called a tablet press.

Where would the following true sentence best be placed?

These layer together at a microscopic level.

A. Point A
B. Point B
C. Point C
D. Point D

Note that in the sentence there’s a massive clue as to where it should go.

The sentence begins “these layer.” Therefore, we know that “layer” must have been mentioned already, and likely very close (for example, in the immediately preceding sentence). Here, it doesn’t use the word “layer,” and it often won’t, but it does say “thin sheets”—in other words, a layer.

Based on the clues we’ve discovered, can you figure out the correct answer?

How to answer text placement (sentence) questions

While these types of questions usually give students a difficult time, this one trick will help you answer 90% of these types of questions. Remember these two things:

1. Check for a logical flow of ideas
2. Also check for specific, direct clues referencing things that must have been talked about already.

Lastly, make sure you’ve read the chapter on Text placement (paragraph). That way, you can answer all of these questions correctly when you take the test.