Differentiate between viewpoints and sources of information within a passage.
Separate a person's viewpoint from the evidence source being cited.
Core Idea
Separate voices from evidence sources. A person's viewpoint, the author's framing, and cited data are not interchangeable.
Understanding
Keep viewpoint and evidence in separate buckets. ACT often places a narrator, quoted speaker, researcher, or data source in the same passage, and the trap is blending them together.
Check three things:
- Who judges: whose opinion or interpretation is this?
- What is observed or measured: what detail comes from data, field notes, or another record?
- Who reports it: is the author quoting, summarizing, or endorsing that source?
A field note, interview, graph, and author summary do not do the same job, even when they appear side by side.
Step by Step
- Identify each voice or source in the excerpt: author, narrator, quoted person, study, or data set.
- Decide which statements are viewpoints and which are observations or measurements.
- Match the answer that keeps speaker and evidence source in the correct roles.
Misconceptions
- Treating quoted language as the passage author's own position without checking attribution.
- Calling data a viewpoint or calling a personal judgment a measurement.
- Blending two sources together just because they appear in the same paragraph.
Worked Example
Excerpt: "In her field notes, Dr. Lin calls the wetland 'resilient.' Local fishermen interviewed later say the marsh has become less predictable each season. The passage then cites satellite data showing that plant cover has expanded even as water levels swing sharply."
Which option correctly identifies one viewpoint and one source of evidence in the excerpt?
Select an answer to see the explanation