ACT Writing Practice: Declining Event Attendance

Declining Event Attendance

For many years, the only way to see a large public event—a concert, a movie, a baseball game—was to attend in person. More than just a function of necessity, though, physically attending a large event was seen as an opportunity to build community and fellowship through shared experience. In recent years, however, attendance at public events has declined steadily. Given the long-standing cultural role of public events, it is worth considering what declining attendance might indicate about our shifting cultural values.

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about declining event attendance as a reflection of shifting cultural values.

Perspective One People these days value convenience over community. It’s easier to watch a game from home than to attend in person, so we do it, even though it keeps us isolated from one another.

Perspective Two For many people, attending an event is a luxury they can’t afford. When time and resources are scarce, we choose what’s most practical first, even if that means sacrificing community participation.

Perspective Three Today, physical presence isn’t necessary for participating in an event and building community. TV, the Internet, and social media offer shared experience to more people than large public events ever could before.

Essay Task Write a unified, coherent essay about declining event attendance as a reflection of shifting cultural values. 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 perspective may be in full agreement with any of those given, in partial agreement, or completely different.

ACT Writing Rubric

[Rubric includes four domains: Ideas & Analysis, Development & Support, Organization, and Language Use. Each domain is scored from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest) with detailed descriptors for each score.]

(See attached image for full rubric details.)