- ACT English is 50 questions in 35 minutes, 42 seconds each, and roughly half the questions fall under Conventions of Standard English: punctuation, sentence structure and usage.
- A student at 28 is usually right by ear on most questions and wrong on the ones written to sound right. Those are the rule questions, and there are eight rules that cover nearly all of them.
- Every rule below has a test you can run in five seconds: can each side stand alone, is the information essential, does the sentence survive the cut.
- When DELETE or OMIT is a choice, test it first. If the sentence still works and the cut material repeats something or wanders off topic, DELETE is the answer.
- Learn the rules as a written checklist, drill one official passage a day for two weeks, and log every miss by rule number.
You’re at a 28 in English and you’re getting there by ear, which is why you’re stuck: the questions you miss are the ones ACT wrote to sound right while being wrong. Eight punctuation rules, learned as a checklist and applied in five seconds each, cover nearly all of them. This guide gives you the eight, with an original example for each, plus the DELETE rule that decides a separate handful of questions every test.
The section is 50 questions in 35 minutes, 42 seconds a question, and the punctuation questions should take 20. That surplus is what pays for the rhetoric questions at the end of each passage.
Why ear fails at 28
ACT, Inc. describes the English section at act.org: 50 questions in 35 minutes across several passages, with reporting categories of Production of Writing, Knowledge of Language, and Conventions of Standard English. Conventions, which is punctuation, sentence structure and usage, is roughly half the section on ACT’s blueprint [verify current percentage].
Your ear is trained on how people write and talk, and people write comma splices constantly. ACT’s test writers know which errors sound natural, and the wrong answers on a 28-student’s missed questions are almost always the natural-sounding ones. A rule beats an ear because a rule gives the same answer under pressure that it gives at your desk.
Every rule below comes with a test, a thing you do rather than a thing you feel. Run the test, pick the answer, move.
Rules beat instincts here.
Rule 1: two complete sentences need a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word
A complete sentence has a subject and a verb and can stand alone. When two of them sit next to each other, ACT accepts exactly three joins: a period, a semicolon, or a comma followed by one of and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. A comma alone is a comma splice, and it is the single most tested error on the section.
Wrong: The trail closed after the storm, hikers kept using it anyway. Right: The trail closed after the storm, but hikers kept using it anyway. Also right: The trail closed after the storm. Hikers kept using it anyway.
The test: cover the punctuation and read each side. If both sides could end with a period, a bare comma is wrong.
Rule 2: a semicolon is a period in disguise
Both sides of a semicolon must be complete sentences. If either side can’t stand alone, the semicolon is wrong, no matter how formal it looks. ACT loves to put a semicolon in front of a fragment because it sounds sophisticated.
Wrong: She packed three things for the trip; a map, a flashlight, and dry socks. Right: She packed three things for the trip: a map, a flashlight, and dry socks.
The test: replace the semicolon with a period. If the result is two real sentences, the semicolon is fine. If one of them is a fragment, it isn’t.
Rule 3: a colon follows a complete sentence and introduces what comes next
The part before a colon must be a complete sentence. What follows can be a list, a single word, an explanation or even another complete sentence. The error ACT tests is a colon after an incomplete lead-in, especially after “such as,” “including” or “were.”
Wrong: The committee’s priorities were: safety, cost, and speed. Right: The committee had three priorities: safety, cost, and speed.
The test: read up to the colon and stop. If you’ve just read a complete sentence, the colon is allowed. If you’re hanging mid-thought, it’s not.
Rule 4: nonessential information gets a matched pair, essential gets nothing
Information you can lift out of a sentence without changing its meaning or breaking its grammar is nonessential, and it is set off on both sides by a pair: two commas, two dashes, or a pair of parentheses. Information the sentence needs gets no punctuation at all. Mixing the pair (a comma on one side, a dash on the other) is always wrong.
Nonessential: My neighbor, who restores old radios, fixed the receiver in an hour. Essential: The neighbor who restores old radios fixed it; the one who doesn’t just watched.
The test: cover the material between the marks and read the sentence. Still complete and still meaning the same thing? Nonessential, so it needs both marks. Does removing it change who or what you’re talking about? Essential, so it needs none. A name after a title, as in the author Octavia Butler, is essential when there are many authors and nonessential when there’s only one possible referent, as in my oldest sister, Dana.
Rule 5: never put a single comma between a subject and its verb, or a verb and its object
This rule catches the commas students add because a sentence feels long. A long subject still connects directly to its verb, and a verb connects directly to what it acts on. One comma in either spot is wrong, even if a pause feels natural when you read it aloud.
Wrong: The decision to move the festival downtown, surprised the vendors. Right: The decision to move the festival downtown surprised the vendors. Also wrong: The vendors learned, that the permits had changed.
The test: find the subject and the verb. If exactly one comma sits between them, or between the verb and its object, remove it. Two commas may be fine (that’s Rule 4). One is not.
Rule 6: introductory words and phrases take a comma; most tail-end dependent clauses don’t
A word, phrase or dependent clause that opens a sentence gets a comma after it before the main clause starts. The same dependent clause at the end of the sentence usually gets no comma, particularly with because, when, if, after and until.
Right: After the rain stopped, the crew finished the roof. Right: The crew finished the roof after the rain stopped. Wrong: The crew finished the roof, after the rain stopped.
The test: if the sentence starts with a dependent clause or an introductory phrase, there should be one comma where the main clause begins. If the dependent clause comes last, try the sentence without the comma. It usually reads cleanly, and that’s the answer.
One exception worth knowing: a contrasting tail clause starting with although, though or whereas does take a comma. The permits were approved, although the fee doubled.
Rule 7: apostrophes mark possession or contraction, never plurals
Its is possessive; it’s is “it is” or “it has.” Whose is possessive; who’s is “who is.” Their, there and they’re are three different words. A plural noun takes no apostrophe. A singular possessive puts the apostrophe before the s, a plural possessive after it.
Wrong: The team lost it’s lead when the goalie’s were swapped. Right: The team lost its lead when the goalies were swapped. Possessives: one player’s jersey, both players’ jerseys.
The test: for its/it’s, say “it is” in the sentence. If it works, it’s; if not, its. For any noun ending in s, ask whether something belongs to it. If not, no apostrophe.
Rule 8: when in doubt, less punctuation
ACT’s wrong answers add punctuation far more often than they remove it. A comma before a preposition, a comma before “that,” a comma between two adjectives that don’t both describe the noun independently, a comma between a verb and an adverb: all added, all wrong. When two answers are identical except that one has an extra comma and you can’t name a rule that requires it, the version without is right.
Wrong: The archive, in the basement, holds records, that date to 1880. Right: The archive in the basement holds records that date to 1880.
The test: for every comma in an answer choice, name the rule that requires it (Rule 1, 4 or 6, usually). A comma with no rule behind it is the error.
| Rule | Five-second test |
|---|---|
| 1. Two sentences need a period, semicolon, or comma plus joining word | Can both sides end with a period? Then no bare comma. |
| 2. Semicolon equals period | Swap in a period. Two real sentences? |
| 3. Colon after a complete sentence | Stop at the colon. Complete so far? |
| 4. Nonessential gets a matched pair, essential gets nothing | Lift it out. Same meaning, still grammatical? Pair. Otherwise none. |
| 5. No single comma between subject and verb | Find subject and verb. One comma between? Remove it. |
| 6. Comma after introductory material, usually none before a tail clause | Opener? Comma. Tail clause? Try it without. |
| 7. Apostrophes for possession or contraction only | Say “it is.” Does something belong to the noun? |
| 8. Less punctuation when no rule requires more | Name the rule for every comma. |
The DELETE rule
Separate from punctuation, many English questions offer DELETE the underlined portion or OMIT as a choice. Students treat it as a last resort. It should be the first thing you test.
ACT includes DELETE when it wants to know whether you’ll cut words that repeat something already said, or a sentence that drifts from the paragraph’s point. Run the test: read the sentence, or the paragraph, with the underlined portion gone. If it’s still grammatical and nothing is lost, look at what you cut. If what you cut restated an earlier idea (“annually each year,” “the final conclusion,” a sentence that says what the previous one said), DELETE is right. If the cut removed information the next sentence depends on, keep it and pick among the other choices.
Illustrative: The bakery opens at 6 AM every morning, and the line forms early, before the doors open. The phrase “every morning” repeats “6 AM” in a daily context, and “before the doors open” repeats “early.” Both are DELETE candidates in an ACT question built on that sentence.
Shortest grammatical answer wins often enough on this section that it’s worth stating as a habit: among choices that are all grammatically correct, the shortest one that keeps the meaning is usually right. ACT rewards concision and punishes redundancy, and DELETE is the most concise choice there is.
Test the cut first.
The 42-second routine
Knowing the rules is half the gain. Applying them at speed is the other half, and the routine is what makes the rules hold up under the clock.
For every underlined portion: read the full sentence containing it, not just the underlined words. Look at the answer choices to see what’s changing (commas, a semicolon, an apostrophe, a verb form). Name the rule being tested from the table. Run the five-second test. Pick, bubble, move. Punctuation questions should take 15 to 25 seconds, which banks time for the rhetoric questions (“which choice best introduces the paragraph,” “should the writer add this sentence”) that need 45 to 60.
A full passage with its roughly 10 questions should take about 7 minutes. Five passages, 35 minutes. Hold the 7-minute checkpoint at the end of each passage the way you’d hold a Reading checkpoint.
Drilling the rules for two weeks
One official passage a day for 14 days, timed, with the rule log, is enough to see your pattern and most of the gain. Don’t drill untimed. The rules are easy at leisure; the section tests them at 42 seconds.
| Days | Drill | Log |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | One passage a day, 7-minute timer, rule number next to every answer | Misses by rule |
| 5 to 9 | One passage a day, plus a 5-minute review of the two most-missed rules from days 1 to 4 | Misses by rule; are the top two shrinking? |
| 10 to 14 | Two passages back to back, 14 minutes, one checkpoint | Misses by rule, time at the checkpoint |
Review the misses with the rule test, not with the answer key’s explanation. Ask which test you should have run and why you didn’t. The answer is almost always that you went by ear instead of running it, and noticing that is how the habit changes.
What to do this week
- Copy the eight-rule table by hand onto one page. Writing it is the first time most students actually read it.
- Take one official ACT English passage with a 7-minute timer and write a rule number next to every answer before checking.
- Circle the rule number on every miss. Those circles, collected over the week, are your personal checklist.
- Every time DELETE or OMIT appears this week, test it first and note whether it was right. Build the habit before you need it.
- Hold the 7-minute passage checkpoint on every drill. If you finish punctuation questions in 15 to 25 seconds, the clock stops being the problem in English.
Questions people ask
How many ACT English questions are about punctuation?
ACT groups punctuation with sentence structure and usage under Conventions of Standard English, and that category is roughly half the section on ACT’s published blueprint [verify current percentage]. Pure comma, semicolon, colon and apostrophe questions are a large share of that half, and they repeat the same eight rules on every form.
Is the Oxford comma tested on the ACT?
No. ACT does not write questions where the only difference between answers is a comma before the final ‘and’ in a list. If two choices differ only by that comma, something else in the choices is what’s being tested.
How often is DELETE the right answer?
We don’t publish a rate because it varies by form, and we won’t invent one. What’s consistent is why ACT offers it: the question is testing whether you’ll cut redundancy or an off-topic sentence. Test DELETE first every time it appears and let the sentence decide.
Should I read the whole passage first in ACT English?
No. Read the sentence containing the underlined portion, plus the sentence before and after when the question involves a transition or a pronoun. At 42 seconds a question there isn’t time to read the passage twice, and the punctuation questions are answered entirely inside one or two sentences.