"Winning Strategies For ACT Essay Writing: With 15 Sample Prompts" by Dr. Aimee Weinstein is a deftly crafted guidebook that offers step-by-step, proven strategies for crafting a winning ACT essay. It includes suggestions for approaching the writing task, analyzing the issues presented, and managing time effectively. The book contains fifteen sample prompts using the exact same format as the official ACT tests. Each prompt includes a sample pro/con chart so students can learn to carefully plan and organize the essay before writing.
Additionally, the book describes techniques to think through, outline, and write an engaging introduction, impressive supporting paragraphs, and powerful conclusion. There are recommendations for selecting a point of view and using solid evidence to support the argument. Additionally, there is a discussion of the ACT scoring rubric and reasons for taking the essay portion. This book is suitable for use with or without a tutor. By reading and practicing with this text, students will gain the tools and confidence to write a high scoring essay.
Thoroughly 'user friendly' in organization and presentation for analyzing each prompt, carefully planning the essay, making a compelling argument, using the allotted time effectively, evaluating sample essays, and increase student test taking confidence, "Winning Strategies For ACT Essay Writing: With 15 Sample Prompts" is an ideal and unreservedly recommended study guide and should be a part of ever school district and community library college ACT test taking instructional reference collection.
-- Midwest Book Review
Winning Strategies For ACT Essay Writing: With 15 Sample Prompts by Dr. Aimee Weinstein is a handy manual for students who are preparing for their ACT exams. The book provides 15 sample prompts. Once the method to approach the prompt is mastered, the process of writing the essay will also be enjoyable. The fifteen prompts will help students put down their thoughts and it also gives timing notes so that they can note their actual timing while practicing. The analysis of the prompts has also been done in all the chapters which will guide students to come up with varied perspectives and a winning essay.
The approach to the topic is excellent and it is formatted in a way to make it easy for students to comprehend and incorporate into their writing. The step-by-step explanations to make the writing process effective and helpful to students makes this book a good tool to have in their personal collection when they are preparing for their ACT exams. Writing a good introduction, supporting paragraphs that are impressive, and a powerful conclusion can be understood clearly once the book is read. Students will also gain confidence when it comes to writing essays. The book has a very systematic and methodical approach to the subject."
-- Mamta Madhavan,
Readers Favourite
Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing: With 15 Sample Prompts is an excellent book to help students preparing to take the ACT Essay. It gives you step-by-step instructions on everything you need to do to ace the ACT Essay. From analyzing the question to selecting the best position to take, this book takes you through the entire process and even gives you sample questions to help you prepare. Invaluable.
-- Carlene Morrison, Bookkeeper and Circulation Staff Supervisor,
Independence County Library
Dr. Weinstein has translated the ACT essay instruction she regularly gives to her students into a methodical, easy-to-use guide for any student wishing to master the ACT essay. This workbook is full of realistic ACT-style essay prompts with the classic three perspectives that take the student from clear examples to completed essays. Later in the workbook are prompts that require more and more input from the student; a student can employ this step-by-step approach for independent study or with the help of a professional.
-- Kate Dalby, President,
Inspiring Test Preparation, Inc.
I love the way Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing deconstructs the test. With the guide’s detailed focus on everything from analyzing the prompt and creating a topic sentence to presenting a counter argument, students can really hone in on the specific skills they need to develop. The skills reinforced in this book will not only improve students’ scores but also make them stronger writers, which will have a lifelong impact.
-- Reena Kamins, Independent Educational Consultant,
College, Career & Life
As an SAT & ACT strategist, I am always excited to explore new channels or content or learning & came across this book that deconstructs Essay section for the ACT. This book has a wide range of essays (with solutions) that are relevant to the ACT exam. The author has decoded the ACT Essay in a very systematic & analytical approach meanwhile keeping it simple. Few initial pages only win you over with brief & crisp description of the essay section in ACT. The versatile examples & highly organized outline helps students who are poor/average essay writers to get grasp on the section easily. The author provides you with set templates to learn/follow which should fit almost all topics & bisects the content for every paragraph beautifully. Marked essays makes learning a joy where one can deep-dive into the context, elevating thought process & creating a right structure. This book is easy to understand, simple to follow & I would say it’s a must have for beginners struggling to ace the ACT Essay.
-- Chinu Vasudeva, Founder & Mentor, Doyen-Ed
Impressively complete guide to essay writing for the ACT. This guide not only offers a comprehensive approach to ACT essay writing but its strategies apply to all good essay writing, so it has wider usefulness. I was happy to find that the Winning Strategies For ACT Essay Writing book has clearly explained the strategies for writing good essays. With practice, the whole process indeed becomes less intimidating, and writing flows more smoothly. I also liked the range of topics represented by the 15 Sample Prompts. Any student who works their way through the units is bound to feel confident that their writing (and time-management) skills have improved noticeably, and they will do well on the ACT.
-- Lucinda Mayo
Librarything User
Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing: With 15 Sample Prompts is an excellent book to help students preparing to take the ACT Essay. It gives you step-by-step instructions on everything you need to do to ace the ACT Essay. From analyzing the question to selecting the best position to take, this book takes you through the entire process and even gives you sample questions to help you prepare. Invaluable.
-- Carlene Morrison
Bookkeeper and Circulation Staff Supervisor
Independence County Library
Reading Aimee Weinstein’s Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing is like having a friendly and knowledgeable teacher sitting across the table talking just to you. Such comfortable teaching is what Aimee has always done in her professional career, and now she does it with her book on how to write for the ACT. Aimee's approach is to isolate the most important points of writing well, but her own writing style is the magic that makes the instruction natural and easy to follow. Her explanations are clear, well-organized, and phrased in a lively manner that teens will appreciate. Particularly helpful are the 15 example essays with Aimee’s markings and comments. The book’s information will assist all types of learners as the graphic charts and marked essays are effectively presented. Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing will be welcomed by both students and tutors — as well as worried parents not knowing how to help their children with the ACT.
-- Cathy Colglazier, English Chair at McLean and TJHSST
Don’t take the ACT without first reading Dr. Weinstein’s Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing! This book takes you through every step of the essay writing process, including how to analyze the question, select the best position, manage your time with precision, and finish the test with a fantastic score. The 15 sample prompts are expertly crafted and will provide all the practice you need, whether you’re studying on your own or working with a tutor.
-- Heather Krey, Director, Test Prep for Success
I appreciate that this book is about more than developing skills that will help with ACT; the step-by-step advice on organizing thoughts to present an argument is a great life skill to be used when writing or speaking.
The book features 15 prompts. The first prompts include comprehensive write-ups as they present a controversial, current topic along with three possible perspectives on it. From there, the argument is deconstructed. For the actual test, the book encourages students to spend 10 minutes organizing their argument with pros and cons, and then use the remaining 30 minutes to write. These initial examples break down that entire process into outline form followed by a full essay.
As the book goes on, though, more and more of the steps are left out, and the student is asked to fill in the blanks. By the final few prompts, students are largely expected to do the work on their own. The back of the book includes more examples of completed outlines and essays.
-- Beth Cato (librarything user)
This book serves not only as a practice guide, but also as a strategic planner. The book demystifies the ACT scoring approach and teaches valuable lessons on maximizing your score and making the best use of the allotted test time. Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing teaches how to plan for the test, then guides the reader through progressively more comprehensive essays, leaving the final essays for practice. This is an excellent way to prepare for the essay writing portion of the ACT.
-- Tony DeMarco
Librarything User
For any novice essay writer who isn't familiar with the breakdown of an essay or an individual who has written an essay before, the Winning Strategies for ACT Essay Writing book is a good tool to have.
-- Arkwen452
Librarything User
As someone who will be needing to write essays for the ACT, this book was extremely helpful to me. I would recommend this guide to almost anyone. It was easy to understand and it showed me many tips that I had never heard of before. It would also be very useful to those who are teaching students who will be taking the ACT. I had been struggling with how to organize my essays, but after reading this book I was able to easily organize them with very little stress regarding it. The 15 sample essay prompts vary widely and gave me many different scenarios to consider.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe that it would be beneficial to both students and teachers.
-- Safaritogo
Librarything User
If you are preparing for the ACT, this book is very helpful! It is well designed and well written along with being informational. It gives an idea of a winning essay writing strategy to help take away some of the stress of writing a good essay that is timed. It is helpful with useful tips along the way through various prompts that are interesting. The sample essays are great examples as well. Everything needed is here to help with ACT essay writing prep.
-- willow_74
Librarything User
I requested this book for my daughter to review for her ACT. She enjoyed being able to learn some tips on her essay writing and did very well on this portion of her test, so I would say it was a success and would highly recommend.
-- Cydni Arterbury
Net Galley Reviewer
This book is well written and the practice tests are challenging. My son will be taking the ACT soon and he really liked the way this book explained things.
-- Stacey Parr
Net Galley Reviewer
This book is perfect if you're struggling to understand the how-tos of the ACT Essays. It is easy to follow, comes with solutions, and gives you a good step-by-step overview.
If you are a tutor, please get this book. It is a great tool to have; not only will it give you material to work with but ayou will also be able to provide a full-on analysis of the solution and help students with a more in-depth approach.
-- Marite D'hyver
Librarything User
Think of this as a guide from your favorite teacher or someone you trust to explain what the ACT essay is and how you can best prepare. Going from the essay description and the three perspectives to choose from, it shows how to analyze and plan your essay. It includes 20 essay examples that take you through the steps you learned on how to analyze, plan and write your essay. This is a great resource for the ACT Essay, but also for college and your future professional life.
-- Elizabeth SanMiguel
Net Galley Reviewer
