Craft & Structure
Word meaning in context, the author’s purpose and point of view, and how the text is built.
What it tests
Craft & Structure questions are about how a passage is written: what a word means in its context, why the author includes a detail or paragraph, the narrator’s or author’s point of view and tone, and how the passage is organized.
How it shows up
- The Reading test is 36 questions in 40 minutes. You get four passages (literary narrative, social science, humanities and natural science), one of which is a pair of shorter passages. That’s about 10 minutes per passage, questions included.
- Craft & Structure is roughly a quarter of the Reading questions.
- Look for stems like “As it is used in paragraph 2, the word _ most nearly means…”, “The main purpose of the third paragraph is to…”, “The author mentions _ primarily to…”, and “The narrator’s attitude can best be described as…”.
Key rules & concepts
The content you actually need to know.
Words in context
- The ACT tests words with more than one meaning. The dictionary’s first meaning is often the trap.
- Cover the word, reread the sentence, and put in your own word. Then choose the closest match.
- Plug your choice back into the sentence — it should keep the meaning exactly.
Purpose and function
- Purpose questions ask WHY something is there, not WHAT it says.
- Ask: “What would be lost if this sentence or paragraph were deleted?”
- Useful purpose verbs: introduce, illustrate (give an example), contrast, emphasize, explain, criticize, qualify (limit a claim), support.
Point of view and tone
- First person (I, we) vs. third person (he, she, they). Is the narrator looking back on events from later in life?
- Tone comes from word choice. Find two or three words that show the author’s attitude.
- ACT authors are usually moderate. Choose “skeptical” or “appreciative” over “furious” or “ecstatic” unless the text is truly extreme.
Structure
- Common structures: claim → evidence; problem → solution; chronological story; compare/contrast; prediction → complication → explanation.
- Watch for pivot words like but, yet, however, instead — they often mark the passage’s key turn.
Strategy & traps
Step by step
- 1For vocabulary: cover the choices, predict a word from context, then plug the choices in.
- 2For purpose: find the part in the passage and ask what job it does for the paragraph around it.
- 3For tone: underline attitude words in the passage; choose a tone that matches their strength.
- 4For structure: use your paragraph labels to describe the passage’s shape in one sentence.
The most common meaning
“Sound” usually means noise — but “a sound argument” means a reasonable one.
Tone too strong
Mild criticism isn’t outrage. Mild appreciation isn’t worship.
What instead of why
A choice that accurately restates a sentence can still be wrong for a “primarily to” question.
Worked examples
Try each one first, then reveal the solution.
Humanities: The Slow Camera
1When digital cameras became cheap enough to fit in every pocket, many observers declared film photography finished. The prediction seemed sound. Why would anyone wait a week for prints when a phone could show a photo instantly and store thousands more?
2Yet in the past decade, film has made a modest but stubborn comeback, and much of it has been driven by people who were born after the switch to digital. Some are drawn by the look of film: its grain, its soft colors, its occasional happy accidents. Others describe something closer to a feeling. With only 24 or 36 exposures on a roll, each photograph costs something, and so each one is chosen with care.
3It would be easy to dismiss this as nostalgia, but nostalgia usually means missing something you once had. Many of these photographers never had it. What they seem to want is not the past but a slower way of paying attention — one that the instant, endless camera in their pocket cannot quite offer.
Example 1
As it is used in paragraph 1, the word sound most nearly means:
- Aloud.
- Breasonable.
- Chealthy.
- Dcomplete.
Example 2
The author notes that many of the new film photographers “never had it” (paragraph 3) primarily to:
- Achallenge the idea that the film revival is simply nostalgia.
- Bcriticize young photographers for misunderstanding history.
- Cshow that film cameras are difficult to find.
- Dargue that digital photography is declining.
Example 3
Which choice best describes the structure of the passage?
- AIt presents a prediction, describes a trend that complicates it, and offers an interpretation of that trend.
- BIt compares two technologies and concludes that one is superior.
- CIt traces the history of film photography from its invention to the present.
- DIt describes a problem and proposes several solutions.
Practice
Pick an answer for instant feedback. Answers lock once chosen.
Literary Narrative: The Strip Behind the Building
1My brother Theo does not believe in instructions. When he decided, at fourteen, to grow vegetables in the narrow strip of dirt behind our apartment building, he did not buy a gardening book or watch a single video. He bought seeds — whatever was on sale — and pressed them into the ground in rows so crooked they looked like handwriting.
2I was seventeen and certain I knew better. I told him the strip got only three hours of sun. I told him the soil was mostly gravel and old bottle caps. I told him, with the confidence of someone who had once read half an article, that tomatoes needed “at least eight hours of direct light, minimum.” Theo listened politely and went on watering.
3By July, the strip behind our building was a riot. The tomatoes were small and a little sour, but there were dozens of them. The beans had climbed the chain-link fence and seemed to be reaching for the neighbors’ windows. Mrs. Adeyemi from the third floor began lowering a basket on a rope, and Theo would fill it with whatever was ripe.
4I would like to say that I admitted I was wrong. What I actually did was ask, very casually, whether he needed help with the weeding. He handed me a trowel without a word, which is the most generous thing he has ever done for me.
5I still think I was right about the sunlight. I have simply stopped thinking that being right is the most important thing a person can be.
Question 1
The passage is told from the point of view of:
Question 2
As it is used in paragraph 3, the word riot most nearly means:
Question 3
The narrator’s quotation of the claim that tomatoes need “at least eight hours of direct light, minimum” (paragraph 2) mainly serves to:
Question 4
The narrator’s attitude in the final paragraph is best described as:
Question 5
The fourth paragraph (beginning “I would like to say”) mainly functions to: