The phrase "actual something" is not standard or commonly used in written English.
It may be used informally to emphasize the reality or authenticity of a particular item or concept, but it lacks clarity without additional context.
Example: "I was expecting a replica, but what I received was the actual something I had been searching for."
Alternatives: "real thing" or "genuine article".
First thing is to sell an actual something; in our case, holiday accessories from polyester tree skirts to titanium menorahs.
She opened with the French model Clement Chabernaud, one of the rare beings in his business who looks as if there's actual something going on inside his pretty head, wearing a neat two-button suit the green of a Necco wafer, the top button placed sternum-height and the cut slim and easeful.
From experience I learned the fear of something happening is often scarier than the actual something happening.
I found that the walking and thinking was more important than the actual writing, something I'd never experienced before.
Reading his actual words — something I had not done before — reveals that he really was an extremist.
They now deign to perform in actual theaters (something they avoided for their first five years), and video has become an integral component of their work.
He's knowledgeable too and happy to give actual opinions, something which the majority of pundits – fences firmly jammed where the sun don't shine – fail to do.
Your actual situation, something of a hybrid, is closer to the first example: the essay was written as classwork, and so you should include it.
As such, the last four seasons have felt a bit like an ongoing farewell tour, rendering the actual farewell something of an anti-climax.
The global magnetic field also has quadrupole and octopole components, which make its actual geometry something like a playground jack with extra spikes.
"I didn't think that should be a defining moment of George's life," Ms. Harrison said of the attack, "but in actual fact something really profound came out of that, and that was the reason to talk about it".
