Reading and writing are significant parts of the ACT and SAT, primarily because they are significant parts of college coursework. The ACT and SAT are designed to predict college readiness and need to ensure that potential students have excellent comprehension skills, grammar knowledge, and writing skills. Here are few strategies to improve your reading and writing.
Outlines
Outlines can be key to both reading and writing. When you are writing, outlines are an excellent way to stay organized. An outline will help you organize your thoughts and write in a way that clearly communicates your ideas and supporting arguments. Taking the time to write a good outline will help your writing go quickly.
Writing an outline of the material you have read will help you comprehend and remember difficult passages. If you can outline the main idea and supporting arguments, you will know you have a good grasp of the material. You will not have time to outline reading passages on an exam, but practicing outlining when reading for classes or for fun will help you create quick mental outlines. You will learn to efficiently make a mental outline of important information.
Practice
Reading and writing skills improve with practice and you can practice both everyday. You can read novels, magazine articles, poetry and more. Read for a few minutes everyday. Develop a question for passages you read, then write a response. Developing questions will ensure that you are working to extract meaning from the passages. Writing responses will give you practice writing coherent statements and crafting grammatically correct sentences.
Groups
Friends can help you. Start a book group and have discussions about passages you have read. Reading with friends can be fun and may inspire new insights. Workshop your writing among friends and family members. It can be emotionally challenging to let others critique your work, but one of the best ways to improve your writing is to take criticism seriously and work improve your skills.
Above and Beyond
Improving your reading and writing skills will help you perform well on the ACT or SAT and it will set you up to be successful in college and your career. Everyone needs to be able to communicate clearly and effectively. Put in time above and beyond what is required for school and you will see dramatic improvements.
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