ACT Essay - making a good first impression

1. The ACT Essay – First Impression
Writing an Effective Introduction

2. First Impression
• Your graders are human! Although they are
instructed to score the entire essay holistically,
they will naturally make a first impression of
your essay beginning with your first sentence!

3. What effect does the Introduction
have in holistic scoring?
• In holistic scoring, graders are instructed to
score the essay as a whole, not on its separate
parts.
• A poorly-written introduction will not by itself
result in a poor score
• BUT . . . It is a part of the WHOLE – and the
FIRST IMPRESSION of the WHOLE!

4. Begin with a GOOD IMPRESSION
• Show critical thinking
• Facility of language
• Focused topic

5. Strong openings
Know your topic well enough so that you
can provide an example of one of the
following:
• A relevant quote (but not one from the prompt)
• A striking statistic
• An unusual fact
• An analogy or comparison
• A topic in the news
• Anecdotes (not always good in SAT essays because of the time
limit – it would have to be very brief)

6. ACT Sample Prompt
Many successful adults recall a time in life when they were
considered a failure at one pursuit or another. Some of these
people feel strongly that their previous failures taught them
valuable lessons and led to their later successes. Others
maintain that they went on to achieve success for entirely
different reasons.
In your opinion, can failure lead to success? Or is failure simply
its own experience?
In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write
about either one of the two points of view given, or you may
present a different point of view on this question.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
Source: www.sparknotes.com, 2009

7. Some Samples for the ACT question:
“Is failure necessary for success?”
EXAMPLES of a relevant quote:
• “Think different.” (Steve Jobs)
• “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career”
(Michael Jordan)
• "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in
rising every time we fail.“ (Confucious)

8. Some Samples for the ACT question: “In
your opinion, can failure lead to success?
Or is failure simply its own experience?”
Examples of a striking statistic
• Abraham Lincoln lost 8 elections before being
elected as President.
• Ford lost over $350 million in the 1950’s on
their new car, the Edsel. That’s over 2 billion in
today’s market.

9. Some Samples for the ACT question: “In
your opinion, can failure lead to success?
Or is failure simply its own experience?”
Examples of an unusual fact
• Because Steve Jobs failed in college, he “sat in”
on a calligraphy course that inspired the fonts
we all know and use today – on the Mac and in
Word.
• A Native American chef named George Crum
invented the potato chip after a picky customer
kept sending his potatoes back into the kitchen
to be cut thinner and thinner.

10. Some Samples for the ACT question: “In your
opinion, can failure lead to success? Or is
failure simply its own experience?”
• An example of an analogy or comparison
• Just as we fall and get up in learning to walk,
learning from failure is the key to success.
• From natural disasters to man-made disasters,
our present success comes from the failures of
our past.

11. Some Samples for the ACT question: “In your
opinion, can failure lead to success? Or is
failure simply its own experience?”
• Examples of a topic in the news
• The iPad, iPod, and even Pixar movies like Toy
Story are in our lives today largely because Steve
Jobs was fired at Apple and turned his creativity
and failure into amazing successes.
• Has the recent wave of protests been failures or
just opportunities for success? (also a rhetorical
question added here)

12. After the opening sentence . . .
• Move QUICKLY to your focused thesis
statement
• Connect your opening to your topic
• Focus your thesis as much as possible (your
thesis becomes focused as your brainstorm and
plan)

13. Avoid in your Introduction . . .
• Cliché and trite openings (“Is failure needed for
success?”
• Generalized and wasted words (“Some people in
the world today …” where else would they be?)
This opening gets a huge “groan” from the
grader
• Announcing your intention – just do it! (“In this
essay, I am ….”)

14. An effective sample intro
for the SAT question
“Is failure necessary for success?”
“Think different.” Few people realize that many of
Steve Jobs’ greatest successes are a result of his
greatest failures. He failed at college and at
Apple before starting Pixar and inventing the
iPod, iPad. Thesis Likewise, some of our
greatest successes result from failures that
inspire a better and different way to create
success.