ACT写作部分从去年5月份开始实行改革，这一年多以来写作部分都经历了哪些变化，对我们今后ACT备考有哪些启示呢?今天给大家做一个年度总结。
改革与动荡
1.2015年9月，ACT写作考试实行新题
官网样题：
老题回顾：
In some high schools, students are required to complete a certain number of community service hours prior to graduation. Some people think community service is a good requirement because they think students will benefit from this experience. Other people think schools should not require community service because students will resent the requirement and, as a result, will not benefit from the experience. In your opinion, should high schools require students to complete a certain number of hours of community service?
In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
官方解释：
解读：
1)话题由“校园类”变成“社会类”(话题深度和广度增加)
2)Prompt材料新增三个Perspective (题型构架复杂化)
3)行文要求关联所给出的Perspective (行文要求难度增大)
4)写作时间由30mins变为40mins (时间长度增加)
2.2015年10月，ACT官网范文变动
2015年9月官网写作sample：
As technology improves, and more and more tasks are completed by machines instead of humans, the question is no longer about what we can do with machines, but rather what we should. Although the usage of machines increases efficiency and our standard of living, it detracts from the value of human life.
As machines increasingly perform all our basic tasks, society is able to produce more. The additional production adds material value to our society and frees people up from these low-skill tasks. This is in agreement with Perspective Two which claims that this industrialization leads to more prosperity. For example, in the 18th century, short-staple cotton that was grown in the Southern United States required an immense amount of labor in order to separate the seeds from the fiber to process the cotton to make it marketable. However, in the mid-19th century, Eli Whitney, an American entrepreneur, invented the cotton gin, which allowed for automation of cotton processing. This machine replaced the need of a large work force for the process and greatly improved production. As a result of the cotton gin, short-staple cotton production skyrocketed, increasing by more than 10 times in the South while bringing prosperity to the region and setting in motion a new industrial era in America. This is in agreement with Perspective Three, which says that mechanization allows for “unimagined possibilities”. Although there are clearly many advantages to industrialization, there are also some heavy drawbacks.
The replacement of humans by machines leads to the loss of value to human life, an effect that outweighs the material gains of automation. The search to find human tasks that can be performed by machines inevitably leads to comparisons between the human and the machine. If a company executive wants to see if a inventory management team can be replaced by a robotic system, he will compare the two and determine which can do a better job. When this occurs, the people on the team are evaluated not for their worth as human beings, but for their effectiveness at performing a specific function—in essence, as we would evaluate a machine. In a larger sense, when we begin to think about humans in this way, the worth of a person’s life becomes dependent on only what they can do and no longer has any intrinsic value. As Perspective One states, we begin to lose our humanity. This new mindset and way of evaluating people, though seemingly harmless in the workplace, is devastating when it begins to pervade a society. If a person is judged only on his or her capability, there is no reason for a person to remain after they have served their function. This would warrant genocide against the elderly and the disabled because their burden on society would not be made up for by any production. Although the machines may seem to only fulfill the low skill jobs at the moment, there is no barrier to prevent the machines from replacing more. As the machines increase in intelligence, they will replace any tasks done by humans and render us unnecessary and worthless.
Due to the risks of dehumanization, the material benefits of machines are not enough to justify its increasing presence.
2015年10月官网写作sample：
Advances in technology have become so widely accepted in today’s culture that very few people are willing to pause to consider the consequences. People get so excited about what new technologies can offer that they forget to question whether there might be any negative effects. Without caution and deliberation, replacing the natural with the mechanical would undoubtedly be disastrous.
The economic implications of the potential mechanical takeover alone should be enough to dissuade anyone from moving too fast. In the event the robots are more widely used in the workplace, humans would surely be replaced. At first, businesses would benefit from the efficiency of robots, but eventually a depressed job market would lead to a population that struggles just to feed themselves and their families, let alone purchase the products these robots make. In the long run, society will suffer if it does not take care to prevent the economic consequences of giving everything over to machines.
Our careless use of automation has already taken a toll on our culture. People have been interacting with automation in nearly every aspect of their lives, whether it be shopping, banking, or the use of a telephone. The effect of this is obvious: basic respect for our fellow man is all but absent today because of increased interaction with automation. Why treat a machine with kindness? It suffers no emotional or psychological damage. In a culture saturated with automation, we get used to treating machines rudely, and we begin to treat each other rudely. This of course leads to all sorts of issues, like intolerance and incivility, and in the long run, results in the complete degradation of culture.
Even in the face of these obstacles, some people argue that the increasing intelligence of today’s machines is a good thing. After all, machine power can decrease the human work load. Computer processers double in power and ability every year. Computers are projected to reach human intelligence by as soon as 2025. The implications of this shift are unknown, but one thing is for certain. We are moving into this change too fast to anticipate and prevent damage to the human species. We are approaching this change too quickly for any sort of safety net to be built. Because of this, it is important that we as a species slow down our technological development so that we might consider all the implications of a change this big. We must figure out how to handle negative societal and cultural consequences before we embrace total integration of automated, intelligent machines.
Decreasing the speed with which we incorporate mechanical influence is important because of the potential dangers that lurk in blind acceptance. Not only does the preference of the mechanical over the natural interfere with the job market and the economy, but its use also has the potential to seriously degrade our culture as a whole. In combination with the uncertainty surrounding the increasing intelligence of machines, it is most assuredly better for the human species that technological progress be slowed so that we can, if necessary, prevent additional damage.
3.2016年6月，“611”事件，ACT考试被临时取消
由于考试试卷在被运送的过程中出了问题，试题被泄露，官方理性地取消了这次考试，却给无数在大雨中等待的考生和家长一个沉重的打击，因为六月这次考试至关重要，决定了很多考生提交ED申请的进度。
4.2016年6月底，ACT写作总分变回12分
ACT的写作考试总分在2015年9月改革之前是按照12分计算;改革之后变成了36分，分成四个维度：Ideas and Analysis; Development and Support; Organization; Language Use and Conventions;2016年6月，官方宣布ACT写作总分变回12分，四个维度不变。此次总分的变化大大降低了标准差，使得基础偏中上等的学生在写作考试中更加有底气，也是变动中的第一个福音。
5.2016年9月，ACT写作“Essay Task”发生变动
2016年9月，ACT写作“Essay Task”发生变动，现行要求至少关联一个Perspective：
原来的Essay Task：
现行的Essay Task就是把原来的Essay Task的三个点变成了第一点，并且在原来的基础上又新增了三点，这三点基本上和评分标准后三个维度一致，即：Development and Support; Organization; Language Use and Conventions.
本质上，这个变化又是ACT官方的一次人性之举，意味着现行的评分标准对于Perspective关联的难度系数降低：现在只需要关联至少一个Perspective就可以了，但是能够去关联三个Perspective是锦上添花的，因为Critical Writing的核心要求是强调论点论据的客观性和逻辑性，所以对于所给材料分析得越全面、越透彻越好。
6.2016年10月，ACT写作考试被爆“泄题”
2016年10月，ACT写作考试被爆“泄题”，考题临时更换成“32N Ads”,参加这次考试的很多学生是顶着香港的“海马”台风飞过去的，考到写作的时候又被告知“由于泄题原因更换写作考题”，身心可谓是受到了双重考验。但是，有一丝惊喜的消息的是，被更换后的考题是”32N Ads”, 这道题和六月份的写作考题属于同一类话题，对于已经做过六月考题的学生来讲，这道题简单了很多。
7.2016年11月，部分考生收到ACT写作成绩被取消的邮件
毕竟是泄题，为了维护考试的公平公正性，ACT官方像以往一样，毫不留情地取消了写作考试成绩，对于很多急需写作成绩申请的学生，这无疑又是一个沉重的打击，此次考试受影响比较大的主要是香港地区的考生。
经历了一年的变动，ACT写作考试从题型设置和应试技巧方面来看，趋于平稳，官网的范文一年没有更新，表明既定的写作评分标准渐渐确立下来。不可否认的是，对于批判性写作考试，满分的形式其实并不唯一，写作基础不同的学生可以按照多样的立论形式去展开写作。无论如何，接下来的变动不太可能是题型或者评分标准的变动，主要是不可控的人为因素，也相信，在ACT官方的公正、理性、严谨作风下，这门考试会变得越来越规范。
真题分析与考情判断
1.考察难度分析
从2015年9月到2016年10月，根据真题分布范围，可以看出以下规律：
1)亚太地区考题由抽象类渐渐转向社会化：创新-挑战-坚持不懈-教育-广告-人际关系;
2)科技、创新类话题都属亚太、北美热门话题：亚太、北美均有两次涉及到科技、创新类话题;
3)两地区考题难度基本与高中生认知契合：不管是亚太考题还是北美考题，不管是抽象类考题还是社会类考题，可以明显的看出，这些话题都在高中生的认知范围之内，即，ACT写作考题不会偏离高中生的认知。
2.考试趋势判断与建议
1)北美重复过亚太考题范围，亚太也可能会重复北美考题范围，建议大家要熟悉亚太和北美所有真题;
2)北美16年10月出现了OG上话题，因此大家不可忽略OG上的习题;
3) 科技类话题可能会出现“复合捆绑式”考核，亚太四月的STEM education就同时涉及到了科技与教育的话题;
4)北美考题中Bad Laws其实是对官方“public health and individual freedom”的映射，要求考生关注个人与社会的关系;而9月的亚太考题考了”comparison”，这其实是个人与个人的关系，因此：大家要关注现实社会中个人与社会以及个人与个人之间的关系;
5) 作为第三次科技革命产物的互联网类话题也没有出现过，电商兴起的时代，与互联网相关的话题大家也要熟悉;
6)亚太地区目前没有考过艺术文化、社会生活类话题，而OG上出现过，北美考题也出现过，所以亚太地区在接下来的考试里面也可能会出现;
7)作为一名即将迎接大学生活的高中生，要了解和熟知科技、经济、社会发展所带来的负面问题：人性缺失、伦理道德危机、信息安全、社会公平、教育公平、生态环境问题。
本文转载自“ACT考试指南”，了解更多ACT方面知识请扫描下方二维码关注我们。
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