Name the local goal
Read the question before judging the options. The writer may ask for an example, a cause, a reason to act, or a qualification. State that job in your own words. Then summarize what the paragraph is already doing. A sentence that belongs elsewhere in the same essay can still distract from this particular goal.
Describe the contribution
Finish this thought for each plausible option: this detail would show the reader that ____. Make the completion specific enough to test. If the writer wants a demonstration, ask whether someone actually performs the action. If the writer wants a reason, look for a relationship that explains the event. If the item asks about deletion, identify what information disappears and whether another sentence already supplies it.
Worked example: an accessible counter
A library newsletter wants to show that a lowered counter lets visitors handle forms independently. One possible detail says that a visitor using a wheelchair signed and passed back a form without assistance. Another says that the counter is made of maple. Both details describe the same counter. The first shows the action the newsletter promised to explain. The second could help in an article about materials, but it leaves the reader guessing about independence.
A condition worth keeping
Change the goal to explaining why the counter matches the rest of the furniture. The maple detail might now be useful if the surrounding paragraph tells us the desks are maple too. Use the current wording of the question to decide. Relevance depends on what the detail does for the writer in this particular context.
Transfer check: a queue at a clinic
A writer wants to show that a text-alert system lets people wait away from a crowded lobby. Would the observation that a patient received an alert while sitting in the courtyard support the goal better than the information that each alert contains a time stamp? Yes. The courtyard example demonstrates waiting away from the lobby. The time stamp explains a feature without showing that benefit.
Try it, then explain it.
Complete a short set without looking at the example. After each answer, explain which evidence or rule supports your decision and why the alternatives do not fit.
Sources & authorship
Original OpenExam explanations and examples. References support the concepts; they are not the source of copied questions. Independent educator review is pending.
Purdue OWL: On ParagraphsACT English test description