Craft and Structure

American Diploma › ACT English and Reading — Complete Course

What this question type tests

Craft and Structure questions ask how the passage is written and why the author made certain choices, not just what it says. They make up 26–33% of the scored ACT Reading questions, roughly 7 to 9 of the 27 scored questions, and they appear in every passage type.

The method, step by step

A. Vocabulary in context

1. Cover the choices. Reread the full sentence (and the one before it).
2. Replace the word with a blank and put your OWN simple word in the blank.
3. Plug each choice into the sentence. The correct one keeps the exact meaning of the sentence.
4. Be suspicious of the most common meaning of the word: ACT often tests a less common meaning ("carried two voices" = contained, not transported).

B. Purpose and function

1. Ask: what is the paragraph (or sentence) doing? Use a verb: introduces, illustrates, contrasts, concedes, objects, concludes.
2. Look at its neighbours. A paragraph that comes right before "And yet" or "However" is often a concession; a paragraph that starts "For example" is an illustration.
3. Choose the answer that describes the JOB, not just the topic. "Describes printed signs" is a topic; "acknowledges the advantages of printed signs before turning to what is lost" is a job.

C. Point of view, tone and narrator

1. Collect the author's evaluative words: foolish, sensible, generous, sad, a small pleasure. They show the attitude.
2. Watch for mixed attitudes. ACT authors are often balanced: "admiring but troubled", "critical but fair". Extreme tones (furious, ecstatic) are rarely correct.
3. For narrators, decide two things: Is the narrator a character ("I") or outside the story? Is he telling it as it happens, or looking back from later ("years later", "now")?

Worked examples

Excerpt 1 (humanities, shorter than a real ACT passage):

[1] Musicians who play the oud often say that the instrument is never finished. A new oud, however carefully built, sounds thin for its first year; the wood must be played into its voice. [2] Makers are sometimes asked to speed up this process, and a few have tried, leaving new instruments beside loudspeakers for weeks. The results, most players agree, are disappointing. An oud, it seems, learns from hands rather than from noise. [3] This may be why an old instrument is so often passed from teacher to student rather than sold. What is handed over is not only wood and strings but years of someone else's playing.

Worked example 1 — vocabulary in context

Question: As it is used in paragraph 1, the word voice most nearly means:

• A) opinion.
• B) characteristic sound.
• C) singer.
• D) right to vote.

Answer: B. The oud "sounds thin" at first; the wood must be played until it develops its full sound. Put your own word in the blank: "played into its ______" → "proper sound". B matches.

• A is wrong — A real meaning of "voice" ("a voice in the decision") but an instrument has no opinions.
• C is wrong — Confuses the instrument with a person who sings.
• D is wrong — Another real meaning ("citizens have a voice") that has nothing to do with sound here.

Worked example 2 — function of a sentence

Question: The sentence "An oud, it seems, learns from hands rather than from noise" (paragraph 2) mainly serves to:

• A) describe how loudspeakers are built.
• B) prove that all modern instrument makers are dishonest.
• C) state the conclusion suggested by the makers' failed experiment.
• D) introduce a new topic that is developed in paragraph 3.

Answer: C. The paragraph gives an experiment (loudspeakers), its result ("disappointing"), and then this sentence, which draws the lesson. Its job = conclusion of the paragraph.

• A is wrong — Off-topic: nothing explains how loudspeakers are built.
• B is wrong — Too extreme: only "a few" makers tried, and dishonesty is never mentioned.
• D is wrong — Half-right at best: paragraph 3 develops the idea, but the sentence's main job is to conclude paragraph 2, not to start a new topic.

Worked example 3 — tone / attitude

Question: The author's attitude toward the tradition described in paragraph 3 is best described as:

• A) respectful.
• B) mocking.
• C) indifferent.
• D) alarmed.

Answer: A. Handing over "years of someone else's playing" presents the tradition as meaningful and valuable. The tone is respectful.

• B is wrong — Nothing in the wording makes fun of the tradition.
• C is wrong — The author clearly cares: he explains the value of what is passed on.
• D is wrong — Too extreme: no danger or worry is expressed.

Excerpt 2 (literary narrative):

When I was nine, I believed my grandfather was the strongest man in Mansoura. He carried sacks of rice up three flights of stairs, pausing only on the second landing to "look at the view," and he laughed at me when I tried to lift one. It was only years later, sorting through his papers, that I found the doctor's letters and understood what the view had been for.

Worked example 4 — narrator's perspective

Question: The narrator's point of view is best described as that of:

• A) a nine-year-old boy describing events as they happen.
• B) an outside observer who did not know the grandfather.
• C) the grandfather remembering his own childhood.
• D) an adult looking back who now understands something he missed as a child.

Answer: D. "When I was nine, I believed…" and "It was only years later … that I … understood" show an older narrator looking back. The adult now knows that the grandfather paused because he was ill.

• A is wrong — Reversed time frame: the past tense and "years later" show he is no longer nine.
• B is wrong — Wrong narrator type: "my grandfather" shows a family member telling the story in the first person.
• C is wrong — Confuses the characters: the grandfather is described, not speaking.

Practice

Now try a full humanities passage (about 700 words) with 9 Craft and Structure questions. It is untimed, but aim for about 10 minutes. Before each answer, name the job, the attitude or your own replacement word.

All pages in this course

Start here

• The Enhanced ACT: Complete Overview
• How to Attack ACT English

English: Conventions of Standard English

• ACT Punctuation
• ACT Grammar and Usage
• Sentence Structure

English: Production of Writing and Knowledge of Language

• Concision and Redundancy
• Relevance: Add, Delete and Writer's Goal
• Organisation: Order and Transitions
• Word Choice and Tone

Reading

• ACT Reading Strategy: Read Fast, Answer Smart
• Key Ideas and Details
• Craft and Structure
• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Practice tests

• ACT English — Practice Test 1
• ACT English — Practice Test 2
• ACT Reading — Practice Test 1
• ACT Reading — Practice Test 2