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Should You Take the ACT With or Without Writing

Wondering if the ACT writing test is for you? You're not alone. Taking the ACT with writing can give you an edge in college admissions by showcasing your writing skills and adding depth to your college applications with a special ELA score (English language arts). Let's explore the ins and outs of the ACT Writing Test to help you make an informed decision. 

What is the ACT Writing Test?

The ACT writing test is an optional 40-minute essay that comes after the main ACT exam. It's designed to measure your writing skills — skills you've been honing in high school and will need in college. 

You'll get a prompt with a complex issue and three perspectives. Your job? Craft your own viewpoint and analyze how it relates to the given perspectives. 

Your writing sample will be evaluated on these four components:  

Ideas and Analysis

Show you understand the issue and can generate relevant ideas.

Development and Support

Back up your argument with solid reasoning.

Organization

Structure your essay clearly to guide the reader through your argument.  

Language Use and Conventions

Use clear, effective language that resonates with your audience.  

The writing test complements the English and reading tests, offering colleges a fuller picture of your skills. 

Is the Writing Portion of the ACT Required?

The ACT writing test is optional, but some colleges and school districts do require it, so do your homework. Check the requirements for your target schools and your district's graduation policy. 

What is the Difference Between Taking the ACT with Writing vs. Without Writing?

Taking the ACT with writing won't affect your Composite score, but it does add an English Language Arts (ELA) score to your report. Opting out means you'll miss out on this additional score. Learn more about ACT writing scores . 

Why You Should Take the ACT With Writing

The ACT with writing offers a unique platform to articulate your thoughts and viewpoints, and it's a chance to go beyond grades and scores, allowing you to connect with admissions officers on an intellectual level. Whether you're set on a dream school or still charting your course, the ACT writing test is a valuable tool in your college application toolkit. Here are a few more factors to consider:  

1. Your School or State Requires It

Some colleges, highs schools, and states require the ACT writing test. Check this early on to avoid surprises. 

2. You Want Your Application to Stand Out

A strong writing score can make your application more competitive. It's a chance to showcase your logical reasoning skills. 

3. Your Grades in English or Language Arts Aren’t the Best

If your grades in English or language arts courses are not stellar, a high score on the ACT writing test can help balance your academic profile. 

4. You Aren’t Sure Where You Want to Apply Yet

If you're still exploring your options, taking the ACT with writing keeps all doors open, as some colleges may require it. 

Why Take the ACT Without Writing

If none of the above reasons apply to you, and if none of your target schools require the ACT writing test, you might opt to take the ACT without writing. This can also save you time and reduce test-day stress.

How To Prepare for the ACT Writing Test

Crafting a standout ACT essay is all about strategy and focus. Allocate time for planning, writing, and reviewing. Understand the prompt and use optional planning questions to guide your thoughts. Keep your argument focused and support it with sound reasoning. Before submitting, review your essay for clarity and accuracy.  

By following these guidelines, you'll be well on your way to writing an essay that not only showcases your writing skills but also makes your college application stand out.  

Resources to Help You Prepare for the ACT Writing Test

Additional act writing test resources.

Explore these resources for more information on producing your best work on test day.

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ACT Writing Tips

The ACT Writing test is a 40-minute essay that you will have to write with pen-and-paper. Although not all schools require the ACT Writing Test, you have to take all four previous tests in order to take the Writing Test. It cannot be done separately from the other sections.

The prompt will describe an issue in a short paragraph, then give you three different perspectives on that issue. Each perspective will be in its own separate box, and they will be labeled “Perspective One,” “Perspective Two,” and “Perspective Three.” Below the perspectives boxes will be the Essay Task, which will look like this:

Notice you must accomplish all three of the bulleted tasks. No matter what perspective you take, your score will NOT be affected if the reader does not share the same opinion. You are only scored on your ability. Here’s how to structure your 40-minutes:

• Step 1 – 5 minutes to Plan
• Step 2 – 30 minutes to Produce
• Step 3 – 5 minutes to Proofread

Thirty minutes may not sound like a lot of writing time, but if we break it down that’s 5 minutes for each paragraph! Aim for 5 paragraphs total, and you’ll be able to finish in the allotted time with a bit of practice, especially if you take enough time to plan out your essay.

How do I Plan? Start by reading the prompt paragraph, and the three perspectives. Part of what you will have to do is choose your OWN position on the topic, and rather than come up with a completely new perspective, choose ONE of the three perspectives that is closest to your own opinion. That perspective will be your thesis, which will be the last sentence of your introductory paragraph. Next, plan out your essay using this template!

ACT Essay Template

This is a sample outline for the ACT essay. Aim for 5 paragraphs. If you have trouble completing 5 paragraphs, see if you can streamline your body paragraphs. They can often be bloated with unnecessary wordiness. Keep the introduction and the conclusion short and sweet.

Paragraph 1 – Introduction (3 sentences)

Begin your essay with two sentences summarizing the other two perspectives (the ones you do not agree with).  Your last sentence will be your thesis, and it will be a powerful and confident statement that encapsulates the ideas of the third perspective (the one you do agree with). For example, it could be structured like this:

Regarding the issue of _________, some people mistakenly believe that _________. Others think _____________. However ____________; in fact, ____________.

Let’s say the essay was about saving the environment. You introduction could be structured thusly:

Regarding the issue of protecting the environment, some people mistakenly believe that recycling and more awareness would be enough to solve the world’s pollution and waste management problems. Others think our world economy’s dependence on oil and fossil fuels is the main source of the problem. However, both these perspectives are too limited; in fact, to truly guarantee our environment’s long-term stability, it is vital that we invest our money and resources in developing alternate technologies.

From this introduction, we have clarified our position: alternative technology is the way to go! We also have clarified the two positions we will attack: recycling/awareness and oil/fossil fuel criticism.

Be sure to reuse key words from each perspective so it is extremely clear which perspectives you are criticizing, and which of the three you are strongly supporting. Do not mention the individual perspectives by number. It is more subtle if you can write your essay as if it is not based on a prompt at all!

Paragraph 2 – Criticism of One Perspective (4-6 sentences)

In this paragraph, you should explain how recycling and awareness doesn’t work. You have three tasks in your body paragraphs:

• Introduce the perspective you will attack.
• Demonstrate you understand it.
• Explain why it is incorrect or ineffective. You should be spending the majority of your body paragraph doing the third step: explaining why it is incorrect or ineffective . You must convince the reader through very concrete detail how your position on the issue is correct. If you can incorrect a SPECIFIC real-world example, that will make your essay even stronger! Check out our “example list” below for an idea on how you can brainstorm possible examples, even before Test Day!

Paragraph 3 – Criticism of Second Perspective (4-6 sentences)

In this paragraph, you should explain how dependence on oil and fossil fuels doesn’t work. Just like you did in the first body paragraph, you will:

• Explain why it is incorrect or ineffective.

Paragraph 4 – Prove Why Your Perspective is Best (4-6 sentences)

Use a transition phrase, and reiterate your thesis in the first sentence. In the rest of the paragraph, elaborate why it is correct. Again, if you can use a specific example, that would be ideal.

Paragraph 5 – Conclusion (2 sentences)

In your conclusion, warn about the future consequences if your perspective were not considered. Then reinforce the correctness of your own thesis. This takes care of having to come up with a conclusion- you’ll already know what to do! Here’s how it might look:

Although some people insist _________ or __________, these perspectives are shortsighted. In order to ________________, the only viable solution is __________.

How to Get Specific Examples

You may not know the prompt topic, but you CAN make a list of extremely specific people, places, current events, etc. from which you could draw on Test Day!

You’ll see a list of examples below – come up with your own list BEFORE Test Day that you can “pull from.”

Example List (sample)

• Oprah Winfrey
• Martha Stewart
• 9/11 (e.g. NYPD/NYFD, post-9/11, etc.)
• Global Warming
• Vietnam / Gulf / Iraq War
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (book)
• Citizen Kane (movie)
• A Tale of Two Cities (book)
• The Scarlet Letter (book)
• Othello (play)
• Britney Spears
• Lena Dunham and “Girls”
• The Olympics
• 12 Years a Slave (book or movie)
• Marie Curie
• Sigmund Freud
• Adolf Hitler
• World War I
• Ancient Egypt

Notice that your examples can be from literature, politics, current events, history! Think about 4-5 topics you covered in each of your classes in the past year. You already know about these, so there might be a way to incorporate them into your essay!

For example, in our sample above, if we were discussing why recycling and awareness doesn’t work, you could say that people don’t just change their behaviors because they are more aware of negative things, and use “12 Years a Slave” as an example. Even though the book was written in 1853, many people did not change their minds about the evils of slavery until years later. Don’t feel like you need to shoehorn examples if they really don’t fit, but you might surprise yourself with how creative you can be!  One specific example per body paragraph is enough. Try to make them different. For instance, if you’re going to use “12 Years a Slave” for one paragraph, don’t use books for the other two paragraphs. Perhaps choose a current event, or an item from history to prove your other points.

ACT Essay Scoring

Like the other sections of the ACT, your Writing score will be out of 36. You will also receive sub-scores (between 1-12) in four individual categories:

• Ideas and Analysis
• Development and Support
• Organization
• Language Use and Conventions

These scores do not add up to the final score, but they break down your writing abilities to give colleges more clarity on your strengths. Your score is given by two independent readers, who will assign a score between 1-6 in each of these four areas. These sub-scores are added together to get a raw score, and that raw score is then converted into the final scaled score. Make sure you familiarize yourself with what a reader is looking for in a “perfect” essay:

As long as you follow the template here, choose a clear perspective on the prompt, and thoroughly criticize the other perspectives, and support your ideas with clear, specific examples, it isn’t too challenging to get a perfect score!  Ready to practice? Try out some of our sample ACT Writing prompts .

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, should you take the act with or without writing.

ACT General Info , ACT Writing

Because ACT Writing is optional, many students are unsure whether they need to add the extra 40 minutes to the test. However, there's a simple answer to whether you should take the ACT with writing or without writing: it depends on whether the colleges you want to apply to require a writing score.

This guide will walk you through how the ACT writing section got started, how to determine whether you should take the ACT with or without Writing, and some other considerations you may want to keep in mind.

What Is ACT Writing?

Since 2005, students have had the choice between two different versions of the ACT: the ACT and the ACT with Writing. The writing test is an optional 40-minute essay task that students can elect to take at the end of the multiple choice test.

ACT, Inc. added the Writing section in response to the 2005 SAT overhaul, which added a Writing section that included both grammar multiple-choice questions and an essay. The addition of the writing task to the ACT was meant to keep the two tests equivalent and easily comparable. Nonetheless, the SAT's essay was required and the ACT's was optional .

This discrepancy between how the two tests incorporated their essay portions caused a fair amount of confusion for students and colleges. Ultimately, each college set its own policy about the two tests' Writing sections : some simply ignored SAT Writing scores and didn't require the ACT Writing, others considered SAT Writing but didn't require Writing with the ACT, and a third group considered SAT Writing and required the Writing with the ACT.

To complicate the situation further, the SAT's essay has now been discontinued . This caused many schools to change their policy about ACT Writing as well. Very few schools now require ACT Writing. Nonetheless, the basic facts remain the same: whether you take the ACT with or without Writing depends on whether the schools you're applying to require it.

The Key Consideration: Which Colleges Require ACT Writing?

With the trend of more schools becoming test optional (especially as a result of the coronavirus pandemic), more and more schools were already not requiring SAT or ACT Writing. When the SAT ended its essay, nearly all schools that required or recommended ACT Writing changed their policies.

Currently, most schools either don't look at your ACT Writing scores at all, or they'll consider them, but they won't have a large impact on your application (and not doing ACT Writing won't hurt your application). Check out our updated list of the schools that require or recommend ACT Writing for the most up-to-date information.

You can also look up schools' most up-to-date standardized testing policies on their individual websites: just search for "[school name] ACT writing requirement" online.

A Few Other Things to Keep in Mind

Although whether the schools you're interested in require you to submit the ACT with Writing should be the primary factor in your decision about which version of the test to take, there are a couple of other pros and cons worth taking into account.

A Good ACT Writing Score Can Boost Your Chances of Admission—Slightly

Even if a school doesn't require the test, a high score on the ACT Writing may give your application a slight boost , since it serves as an indication of strong writing and analysis abilities. This is basically just a way of providing some extra information and will generally have only a minor benefit (similar to submitting both ACT and SAT scores ).

The main circumstances in which it would be worth submitting the ACT with Writing even if it isn't required would be if you're applying to especially competitive schools or schools that recommend the Writing section .

Also be aware that some schools simply won't look at your Writing score, even if you send it. Make sure to read each school's policy carefully so you know what's worth spending time on.

Costs of Taking the ACT With Writing

So far I've focused on reasons you would want to take the Writing section, but there are also some costs associated with doing so.

Registration Fee

There is an extra fee ($25) to take the writing portion of the test.

Extra Study Time

If you take the Writing section you will need to study for the Writing section, which means investing extra hours into ACT prep .

However, ACT Writing is relatively straightforward once you know how it works, so even just a few hours of prep (say, reading through the rubric and some examples and trying a practice essay ) can be very helpful.

Both of these costs are relatively minor and neither should prevent you from applying to schools that do require ACT Writing . If the added fee is a serious issue, you may qualify for a fee waiver , which covers the writing section as well as the general registration.

Final Verdict

Let's go through each possible situation you might be in and whether you should take the ACT Writing.

If even one of the schools you want to apply to requires the ACT with Writing...

...take the ACT with Writing. You won't be able to get in without it, so it's worth the slightly higher fee and extra time commitment.

If you're applying only to schools that won't consider ACT Writing scores...

...skip taking the ACT with Writing. If schools won't even consider it, it's just a waste of time and money.

If you're looking at schools that don't require ACT Writing and aren't very competitive...

...only take the ACT with Writing if your application shows major weaknesses in English language skills.

If you're applying to more competitive schools or schools that recommend ACT Writing...

...take the ACT with Writing, unless the cost and stress profoundly outweigh the potential benefit of more information for colleges.

If you're not sure where you want to apply...

...take the ACT with Writing. It will save you from having to retake the test if you realize you need to submit ACT Writing scores later.

No matter what your situation, make sure to double check whether the schools you're applying to require you to submit ACT Writing scores . There's nothing worse than thinking you're completely finished with standardized testing, only to realize that you have to take the test all over again.

What's Next?

Just realized you need to take ACT Writing ? Check out our complete guide to the new Enhanced Writing test and tips on how to get a 12 on the essay .

If you're more focused on other sections of the test , check out our ultimate prep guides for ACT Reading , English , and Science .

Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Alex is an experienced tutor and writer. Over the past five years, she has worked with almost a hundred students and written about pop culture for a wide range of publications. She graduated with honors from University of Chicago, receiving a BA in English and Anthropology, and then went on to earn an MA at NYU in Cultural Reporting and Criticism. In high school, she was a National Merit Scholar, took 12 AP tests and scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and ACT.

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‘Chelsea’ Asked for Nude Pictures. Then the Sextortion Began.

Young men are being tricked into sending naked pictures to scammers pretending to be women — who then demand money. The consequences can be devastating.

By Sarah Maslin Nir

The Instagram message popped up from a girl named Chelsea: “Howdy.”

David didn’t know anyone named Chelsea, but he clicked through her profile: She had brown hair and a nice smile; under her name was a quote from the Bible. He thought it was sort of weird that she was messaging him, a stranger, in the middle of a workday, but her pouty selfies made that easy to ignore.

He was hesitant when she asked him to chat, but soon her flirty messages escalated to a volley of explicit pictures, and David, a 32-year-old pharmacy technician, got carried away. When she asked him for a nude, he hardly thought twice, he said. He slipped into the bathroom at the New Jersey hospital where he works, took a picture and hit send.

Within seconds, the threats began.

David’s phone lit up with messages: pictures he had sent with his genitals exposed alongside screenshots of his Instagram followers with whom he shares a last name — his family. “She said: I’m demanding $500, if not I’m going to send it to all of these people,” said David, who asked that only his middle name be used to protect his privacy. “Then she started a countdown.”

But there was no Chelsea. The real person behind the account, David said, was a man who, over the course of three fraught days, inadvertently revealed he was in Nigeria as he demanded hundreds of dollars to keep David’s pictures private. As he paid up, David joined the thousands of people cowed under a new scam that has exploded over the past three years to become the fastest-growing cybercrime, according to both the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security.

Called financial sextortion, it is a uniquely modern riff on the romance scams of yesteryear in which the lonely were seduced into parting with their money by people posing as suitors. In other versions of the scheme that focus on women and girls, explicit images are typically coerced for sexual gratification or to be sold as pornography. This new iteration preys on young men and teenage boys, and the images are held as ransom — often for as little as a few hundred dollars, to be paid typically through cryptocurrency or even gift cards from the sender.

But cybercrime agencies caution not to be deceived by the seemingly small stakes. Many victims caught in this scam are minors — of the 13,000 reports of financial sextortion the F.B.I. received between October 2021 to March 2023, a vast majority of them involved boys. And though David’s dealings with “Chelsea” cost him $750 (as well as spiraling anxiety and a deep sense of humiliation), the consequences for young boys can be devastating. According to the F.B.I., between January 2021 and July 2023, at least 20 teenagers, when faced with the threat that an embarrassing photo would ruin their lives, have killed themselves.

“They can’t understand temporary versus forever,” said Mary Rodee, the mother of Riley Basford, a 15-year-old from Potsdam, N.Y., who in 2021 killed himself just hours after he was enticed by a scammer who posed as a girl his age on Facebook. After Riley sent nude photos of himself, the scammer demanded $3,500 to have them returned. Since her son’s death, Ms. Rodee, an elementary schoolteacher, has become an outspoken educator about sextortion.

She also has joined the ranks of parents and cybersecurity experts lobbying for better protections from the social media that the scammers use. “It is really hard to just live with knowing that these people who did this to Riley continue to get away with it,” Ms. Rodee said. “I just can’t understand, how can the tech companies not immediately stop them? Because they could.”

Sextortion tips for scammers

In a co-working space in New Haven, Conn., Paul Raffile , a cyberintelligence analyst, put up shades to mask his work computer screen — it was filled with the social media profiles of sextorters sharing their spoils on TikTok. Last year, Mr. Raffile was introduced to sextortion when a friend contacted him for help with a humiliating problem.

He was stunned by how open the scammers were about their exploits, bragging about their marks (whom they refer to as “clients”) and comparing best practices on public message boards and social media accounts. Since then, Mr. Raffile has made it the focus of his work at the Network Contagion Research Institute , an independent organization that identifies and forecasts online threats.

“It was extremely shocking, the number of people — especially young people — being targeted by the scam on a daily basis,” he said. “It was insane to see just how cavalier they were being, and how public and open they were about sextorting victims.”

He learned how they typically work. First, a scammer located in, say, Ivory Coast, will create an attractive female avatar. To find targets, he may trawl a high school football team’s social media account and “friend” all the players; those who accept the friend request are sent flirtatious messages. Once the person has obtained a photo — one that shows both genitals and face, for more leverage — the scammer will use that list of people as well as the victim’s online friend list as a weapon, threatening to send the compromising picture to teammates, coaches and teachers.

On his screen, Mr. Raffile pulled up what amounts to a school for sextorters: online marketplaces on TikTok, YouTube and Scribd, a popular repository of documents, where you can browse through libraries of extortion scripts, known in the trade as “formats.” These are step-by-step guides on how to blackmail, or in the shorthand of the scammers, “BM.” The scripts, some of which are for sale on the site, include things like the best words and phrases to seduce a victim into handing over a picture, and even instructions on how to instill the right amount of panic.

The method has become so common that when a different New Jersey man was duped into sending a scammer nude photos, the man immediately raced to a drugstore to follow the scammer’s directions: load $1,000 onto as many gift cards as necessary and send the redemption codes. At the register, the store manager took one look at the gift cards and tried to stop him, the man said; the manager had seen this before.

The man, who asked not to be named, said he was too afraid to heed the advice. He sent the money anyway.

‘Your world is not over.’

Financial sextortion emerged on law enforcement radar about five years ago, according to Mike Prado, the deputy assistant director of the Homeland Security Investigations Cyber Crimes Center. Known as C3, the center is a hub based in Fairfax, Va., about 30 minutes west of Washington. In a hulking office building with hallway wallpaper meant to evoke binary code, forensic analysts sift through the digital footprints of online criminals, including sextorters.

From 2022 to 2023, about 2,300 sextortion cases came into C3, Mr. Prado said; since October 2023, there have been 8,000. But even that notable jump is most likely an undercount, he said, because of the shame many victims feel. As an example of the potential scope: Last year, the parent company of Snapchat conducted a survey of over 1,000 teenagers and young adults that found nearly half had been recently approached sexually across different social media by strangers. Nearly half of those who shared explicit pictures were met with sextortion attempts.

“The consequences of this could not be more serious,” Mr. Prado said. “It is inordinately affecting children, and young boys in particular.”

U.S. law enforcement has gone after scammers abroad successfully a few times: After a Michigan teenager named Jordan DeMay shot himself following the scam in 2022, two Nigerian brothers, Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and Samson Ogoshi, 20, were arrested in Lagos this past summer following an F.B.I. investigation and extradited to Michigan.

In April both pleaded guilty to conspiring to exploit teenage boys — there were hundreds of other victims, according to the F.B.I. — which entails a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

But in most instances, Homeland Security’s investigation begins and ends in the center in Fairfax. While there have been some arrests made abroad, the United States has no formal extradition agreement with many of the countries where the scammers are. Ivory Coast, which analysts at the Cyber Crime Center have located as the primary location of financial sextortion cases, has no such agreement.

“It absolutely is a source of frustration, which is why we have switched tactics to a certain degree, and are really focusing on the prevention and education piece,” Mr. Prado said. For victims, he said, “It is important to note your world is not over.”

A push for digital guardrails

Ms. Rodee is haunted by the fact that her son, Riley, didn’t realize he had options once he hit send. Part of her work now, she said, is changing the longstanding messaging to children that the internet is forever, an approach that advocates and law enforcement have also begun to take.

But she and others lay most of the blame on social media companies that she says are not doing enough to block the scam accounts. Ms. Rodee has become a regular at the U.S. Capitol, lobbying Congress to pass laws that would require tech companies to install stronger digital guardrails for minors, among other reforms. This week, President Biden signed into law the REPORT Act, which requires social media platforms to report crimes involving enticement of children, which they are not currently required to do.

“Even though I’m sick and sad, I can’t stop trying or give up,” Ms. Rodee said.

In early April, Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, announced it would be testing an optional security feature to both block unwanted nude images and remind senders to think twice before sharing their own. It is developing new tech to identify potential sextortion accounts, among other measures.

“This is a highly adversarial space,” Antigone Davis, the global head of safety for Meta, said in a statement. “Determined scammers and criminals evolve their tactics to try and evade our protections.”

Others want to hold tech accountable not for future incidents but for past negligence: Brandon Guffey ’s teenage son, Gavin, killed himself in 2022 after falling prey to a sextortion scam. In January, Mr. Guffey, a South Carolina state representative, sued Meta for what he claims is the tech company’s failure to provide adequate child protections.

“You are allowing someone from outside this country to contact minors, and they exchange child pornography through their channels, and yet they try to claim that it is not their problem,” Representative Guffey said in an interview. “They put profit over people, and sad to say, one of those people was my son,” he said.

The cybersecurity researcher, Mr. Raffile, agreed with the assessment that tech companies have much more to do to address a problem of which they are fully aware, despite recent moves to cooperate with law enforcement and roll out new safety features.

On Reddit, victims on one sextortion forum share encouragement and empathy with distraught newcomers. There is hard-won advice from Reddit commenters — don’t pay; the pictures won’t actually ruin your life — and links to resources like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children , a nonprofit clearinghouse for crimes involving children, where the crime can be reported, and which offers methods for getting pictures exposed online removed.

This is the tack the Department of Homeland Security is taking. In April it announced a nationwide rollout of awareness campaigns that will include signs at Major League Baseball games and NASCAR rallies, as well as partnerships with groups like the Boy Scouts of America. Special agents will visit schools to inform teenagers of the crime and how to avoid falling victim.

On a recent afternoon, at one such presentation in the auditorium of Preston High, a Catholic girls’ school in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, several hundred students sat before a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in New York, half-listening as he told them about the perils of sextortion.

As he spoke, at least a third of the students appeared to drift off.

Sarah Maslin Nir is a Times reporter covering anything and everything New York ... and sometimes beyond. More about Sarah Maslin Nir