ACT Writing Section Guide

ACT Writing is a 40-minute essay you add to your test date. It is optional, and it is scored on its own 2 to 12 scale, reported apart from your Composite score. Skipping it leaves your Composite, English, Math and Reading scores untouched. Choosing it adds a fee, an essay prompt with three perspectives, and extra numbers on your score report.

This guide walks through the prompt format, the four scoring domains, the 40-minute clock, and how the Writing score sits next to your Composite. It also separates paper scoring from online scoring, because the two formats send your essay down different routes. Use it to decide whether the extra fee and extra time fit the colleges on your list.

Is ACT Writing Required?

The Writing test is optional. You add it at registration by choosing ACT with Writing, a separate registration option from the standard ACT. Requirements for the essay vary by school. Confirm the current policy directly with each college on your list before you register, or read our guide on deciding whether to sit the optional ACT Science and Writing sections.

Adding Writing raises your registration fee. ACT lists four options on its registration fees page. Two of the four options include the essay. The table below lists all four with the option names ACT uses.

Writing costs $25 on top of the matching base option. The $70 EMR Composite option becomes $95 once you add Writing. The $75 EMR plus Science option becomes $100 once you add Writing. Choose your base option first, then decide on the essay.

The Three-Perspective Essay Prompt

Each prompt describes a complex issue and presents three different perspectives on it. Your task is to build your own perspective. You are allowed to adopt one of the three given perspectives or introduce a new one of your own. Support the position you take with reasoning and examples.

Here is the shape of a prompt, written for this guide and not an official ACT prompt. A prompt might raise a debate over phone use in classrooms. Perspective one argues schools should ban phones outright during class to protect focus. Perspective two argues schools should leave phone rules to each teacher.

Perspective three argues schools should allow phones during breaks and ban them only during instruction. You then defend one of the three, or an original view, with your own reasoning. State your position in the opening paragraph so the rest of the essay has a claim to prove. Weigh the perspectives you reject instead of ignoring them.

How Long You Get

The Writing test runs 40 minutes for the single essay. You get no separate time for planning or revision. The 40 minutes covers reading the prompt, planning, writing and final checks.

Spend the first few minutes on planning before you write. Pick the perspective you will defend and list two or three supporting reasons. Build paragraphs around those reasons instead of writing while you decide your position. Save the last two minutes for a read-through.

Four Scoring Domains, Scored 2 to 12

ACT Writing scores run from 2 to 12, one overall score built from four separate domains. Every essay is scored across the four domains listed below. Each domain score also runs 2 to 12.

• Ideas and Analysis
• Development and Support
• Organization
• Language Use and Conventions

Your single reported Writing score is the rounded average of the four domain scores, on the same 2 to 12 scale. Domain scores of 9, 8, 8 and 10 average 8.75, which rounds to 9. All four domain scores appear on your report next to the single Writing score. One weak domain drags the average down, so give the four equal attention in practice.

Paper Testing: Two Readers, 1 to 6 Each

Paper essays go to human readers. On the paper test, two readers score each domain independently on a 1 to 6 scale, and the two reader scores for a domain are added together to give the reported 2 to 12 domain score. The table below shows two example additions for paper testing.

Online Testing: Automated Scoring with Human Review

Online essays take a different route. An automated scoring engine returns a single 2 to 12 domain score when it scores the essay with high confidence. Essays scored with low confidence go to human readers, and a random sample of essays is reviewed by humans as well. The reported scale is identical on both formats, so a 9 online and a 9 on paper mean the same thing.

How the Writing Score Appears on Your Report

Writing sits outside your Composite. Taking the Writing test does not change your subject-area scores or your Composite score. The Writing score is reported next to the Composite, not folded into it. Both numbers reach colleges on the same report.

Completing Writing alongside the English and Reading tests adds one more number to your report: a separate English Language Arts (ELA) score. The ELA score sits next to your subject scores and your Writing score. It does not replace either one. Skip Writing and no ELA score is reported.

For the full picture of every score on your report, including how the Composite is calculated, read our guide to ACT scoring. It sets the Writing score against the subject scores. Read it before you decide how much essay practice you need.

Our free ACT practice tests include the Writing essay prompt option, timed to the same 40 minutes, alongside English, Math, Reading and Science. Sit a full practice test to rehearse the pacing of a real test day, then score your own essay against the four domains. Our practice tests and drills are free with no signup required.

Sources

• Description of Writing Test, ACT
• Understanding ACT Writing Test Scores, ACT
• Should You Take the ACT With Writing? How to Decide, ACT
• ACT Registration Fees, ACT