Know your audience

Before you begin writing anything, it’s important to consider who’s going to be reading what you’re saying. The same applies to writing an effective ACT essay. Let’s talk about your audience (who you’re writing for).

Who is your audience?

Your audience is two professional ACT readers, in most cases. There will be a third person brought in if the grades given by the two readers differ by more than a point.

Beyond that, there’s no way to know exactly who these people are that will be reading your essay. Here’s a likely image of who this person might be:

• A young or middle-aged woman
• Has a humanities or social science degree
• Has the part-time job of grading your essay on top of another full-time job. Not exactly ideal, right?

But why does any of this matter? How should this affect your writing?

How to write for your audience

Grading your ACT essay is no one’s dream job. Sorry to say it. Remember, also, that your audience has enough on their personal plate as it is. But if you’re thinking this means the cards are stacked against you, think again. You can use this information to your advantage.

Strategy: Make the audience forget they are at work, grading stacks of essays.

If you can make the audience forget they are at work and create an escape for them, they are more likely to be in a good mood and to connect with your writing. You can do this by telling stories. Stories allow your audience to temporarily escape from their stack of essays. Keeping up this illusion is a priority as you write your essay.

Telling stories also helps your audience to connect with you by giving them an idea of who you are. They will start to connect your essay with YOU rather than words on a paper.

Keep in mind:

Including stories in your writing is probably different than what you’re used to writing for school assignments. You’ve been trained to provide evidence for claims and to cite articles throughout your writing. You were probably given multiple days or even weeks to complete such a paper—rather than the 40 minutes allowed on the ACT essay. When you have such little time, stories are a great way to give your writing credibility.

In future chapters, you will get some practice writing your own stories, which will help you create an effective essay for your audience.

Pro Tips:

• Always use names in your stories. For example, if you are telling a story about your Aunt Kathryn, call her Aunt Kathryn rather than “my aunt.” This builds the world of your storytelling. If you don’t feel comfortable saying the real names, make up fake ones.
• Use short sentences. You cannot control how brilliant you sound to the audience, but you can control how clear you sound. Focus on clarity, not on sounding smart. Short sentences help.
• Don’t skip out on story details that will help the audience connect with your writing. Not giving enough information in the stories is a common problem test-takers have when writing the ACT essay.