Passage Types

• Identify the narrator's point of view (first person, third person limited, omniscient)
• Track character emotions, motivations, and relationships throughout the passage
• Answer tone questions: name the narrator's attitude in one word, and say what a descriptive detail or a line of dialogue reveals about a character
• Answer inference questions by finding supporting textual evidence
• Finish on one ACT-hard question and say what made it hard

The literary narrative passage is typically an excerpt from a novel, a short story, or a memoir or personal essay. It is the one passage the enhanced ACT labels literary narrative (the other three are labeled informational), and in three of the four official practice tests it came as a pair of memoir excerpts by two narrators, with questions such as 'Both passages are told from the point of view of a narrator who' (the Arguments and Paired Passages lesson teaches the pair). Unlike informational passages, it focuses on characters, emotions, and narrative arc. Questions often ask about character motivation ('Why does the narrator feel...'), relationships ('The interaction between X and Y suggests...'), and tone ('The author's attitude toward the subject is...'). Pay close attention to descriptive language and dialogue, as these reveal feelings the author does not state directly. Many students either love or dread this passage. Practice will make it predictable. Read literary passages in chunks and pause after each to say what you have learned about the narrator: who they are, what they want, and how they feel right now. When a line or a question stem is dense, restate it in plain words first, then restate each choice the same way before comparing. Proof habit: before locking any answer, point to the line that supports it; if no line does, the choice is out. Name the reason each wrong choice fails: not stated in the passage, too narrow (fits one part only), a distorted detail (the right words with a changed meaning), extreme wording, or true but not an answer to this question. A plausibility filter helps too: a choice that makes a sweeping or insulting claim about a real person or group is rarely the credited answer. At the hard end, the narrator's attitude must be pieced together from clues scattered across the passage, an unfamiliar word has to be decoded from the sentences around it, and each wrong choice goes one step further than the text supports. Point of view: first person means the narrator is a character ('I', 'we'); third person limited uses 'he', 'she' or 'they' and shows one character's inner thoughts; omniscient uses third person and shows several characters' thoughts. The quick test is whose inner thoughts the passage shows.

• As you read, note each character's name and a one-word descriptor of their mood or role.
• For tone questions, eliminate extreme answer choices first. The ACT rarely uses words like 'furious' or 'ecstatic.'
• If a question asks what a character 'would most likely' do or feel, find evidence in the passage. Never rely on your own assumptions.