Recently in this blog, we discussed how to build credibility in your ACT essay. If you were paying attention, you would have learned that there are three points to Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle – logos, pathos, and ethos. Logic, emotion, and credibility. The emotion is what is creating a bond between the grader and your essay. It is connecting this reader to your writing in a way that will ensure, even after already having read hundreds of other essays on identical topics, he or she is interested and engaged in what you have to say. Here are a few tips to help ramp up that emotion!
Use figurative language. Writing descriptively will cause your reader to actually picture the things you’re saying; if they have an image in their mind’s eye, they’ll feel more strongly towards it than words on a page. Figurative language is also much more interesting and stimulating than literal prose. As you build interest you’re building this connection from the reader to your paper – and that connection is what is going to push your score up higher and higher!!
Use compelling examples. The essay topics on the ACT are always written to be topical to high school students lives. Every subject broached is one that directly affects your life – should you be required to wear an ID badge? Should busing to and from school be required? – and there is a vast expanse of emotion for you to tap. Push your examples as far as they can go. Busing to school should not be required because bullying often happens on the school bus – and bullying often leads to violence, depression, and an inability to cope in adult years. Use examples that are provocative and ask the reader to really think. The more they are thinking about your arguments, the more their mind is racing to consider the possibilities you are offering them, the better your score is going to be!
Try using a rhetorical question. Rhetorical questions ask your reader to invest themselves in your work by pausing and considering what you’ve asked. They ask the reader to contribute to your essay, to become part of a writing team rather than an objective, withdrawn third party. They are complicit now in what you have to say, and this will create the impression in them that your essay must really be great. After all, they helped write it, right?
Follow these three tips and your essay will stick with your reader long after they’ve moved on to the next paper!
BY: Catherine Martin
Victory Step Education Team
