Questions about authorial claims on the ACT® Reading test can be tricky, but they always rely on evidence from the passage. The ACT® might ask you to recognize when an author is making a claim rather than stating a fact. Once you spot these claims, you'll need to figure out why the author made them.
Example Question Phrasings
Here are some ways the ACT® might ask about authorial claims:
- "The author says X. Why does the author do this?"
- They might ask if it's a lamentation, illustration, critique, or something else.
- "Is the author's statement a fact, theory, or opinion?"
- The ACT® won't directly tell you it's not a fact, but the question implies you need to think about it.
- "The author's claim about Y is supported by which evidence?"
- When you see the word "claim," it's a clear sign that you need to consider why the author made this statement and what evidence backs it up.
- "What is the main purpose of the author's statement in lines 45-48?"
- This type of question asks you to think about the author's intentions behind a specific claim.
- "How does the author's claim in paragraph 2 relate to the overall argument of the passage?"
- Here, you'll need to connect a specific claim to the broader context of the passage.
Optimal Technique to Solve
When tackling authorial claim questions on the ACT® Reading, follow these steps:
- Locate the claim: Find the exact spot in the passage where the author makes the statement in question.
- Read in context: Don't just focus on the claim itself. Read a sentence or two before and after to understand the full context. The ACT® often hides clear answers nearby.
- Form your own conclusion: Before looking at the answer choices, try to come up with your own idea about why the author made this claim or what evidence supports it.
- Use Process of Elimination: If the answer isn't obvious from the context, look at the choices and cross out any that clearly don't fit based on what you've read.
- Find supporting details: For each remaining answer choice, scan the passage for specific details that either prove or disprove that option.
- Choose the best answer: Select the option that's most strongly supported by the passage, even if it's not perfect.