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ACT Writing Sample Essays: Official Prompts and Scored Examples
This page provides official ACT Writing test essay samples along with real ACT Writing prompts for practice.
Scoring for the Sample Prompts and Writing Test
These essay samples were scored by trained raters on a 1–6 scale per domain. If you test on paper, two raters will score your essay in each of the four writing domains and their ratings are combined for a final 2–12 score.
If you test online, an automated scoring engine will score your essay on a 2–12 scale. Note: State and District and international test takers may be scored using a different process.
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Official ACT Essay Sample Prompt: Intelligent Machines
Write a unified, coherent essay about the increasing presence of intelligent machines. In your essay, be sure to:
- clearly state your own perspective on the issue and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective
- develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples
- organize your ideas clearly and logically
- communicate your ideas effectively in standard written English
Your essay perspective may be in full agreement with any of those given, in partial agreement, or completely different.