Question Types

• Evaluate an argument: find the claim, list the evidence offered, and judge whether that evidence actually supports the claim
• Compare paired passages in order: read and answer Passage A, then Passage B, then the questions about both
• Describe how two authors relate: they agree, they disagree, or one qualifies the other's view
• Reject answers that are true in the passage but do not answer the question asked
• Finish on one ACT-hard question and say what made it hard

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas is one of the three ACT Reading reporting categories. Today covers two of its skills. (1) Evaluating arguments. Find the author's claim, then list what supports it: a study, a statistic, an expert, an example, or only the author's opinion. Questions ask which evidence supports a claim, whether a statement is fact or opinion, or what would strengthen or weaken the argument. A fact can be checked; an opinion is a judgment. Strong evidence is relevant to the exact claim, not just to the topic. (2) Paired passages. Every official enhanced practice test has one pair of shorter passages (Passage A and Passage B) on a related topic, and its 9 questions usually split about 3 on Passage A, 3 on Passage B, and 3 on both. In three of the four official tests the pair was the literary narrative: two memoir excerpts, where the both-passages questions ask about the two narrators' points of view, a shared theme, or which quotation from one passage best reflects a theme of the other. Act's wording for the both-passages questions: 'The authors of both passages would most likely agree that', 'Compared to Passage A, Passage B focuses more on', 'Which of the following quotations from Passage B best reflects a main theme of Passage A?', 'Based on the passages, the narrators' views of ... differ in that'. Work in this order: read Passage A, answer the Passage A questions, read Passage B, answer the Passage B questions, then answer the questions about both. This keeps details from the two passages from blurring. Before the comparison questions, state each author's main claim and tone in one sentence and then say what links the two passages (the shared topic or question they both address), then decide how they relate: agree, disagree, or one qualifies the other. Signal phrases include 'both authors,' 'unlike the author of Passage A,' and 'would most likely agree.' The category's third skill, reading a chart or table that comes with a passage, is not part of today's lesson; it has its own lesson, Charts and Tables. Comparison traps have their own reasons: a choice true of only one passage, a term from one passage misread in the other, and an absolute claim that neither author makes. At the hard end, a 'both authors would agree' choice is true of one passage and merely not contradicted by the other, so check each passage for positive support.

• For argument questions, find the claim first. Evidence only counts if it supports that exact claim.
• For paired passages, read and answer each passage separately before tackling the comparison questions.
• Watch for comparison signal words: 'both,' 'unlike,' 'in contrast,' 'similarly.' They tell you the question is about the relationship between the two passages.
• If a choice is true but does not answer the question asked, it is wrong.