Question Types
- The exam tests you on four "Big Ideas":
- Rhetorical Situation, which examines the exigence, audience, writer, purpose, context, and message of a given text
- Some questions you might see:
- Which of the following best describes the writer's exigence in the passage?
- This passage is most likely excerpted from...
- Some questions you might see:
- Claims and Evidence, which examines an author's claims, the evidence they use to support those claims, and their acknowledgment of other perspectives.
- Some questions you might see:
- In the third paragraph, the writer criticizes the logic of those professionals who dismiss the value of the trades as "irrational" on the grounds that they have...
- The writer wants to add more information to the third paragraph to support the main argument of the paragraph. All of the following pieces of evidence help achieve this purpose EXCEPT which one?
- Some questions you might see:
- Reasoning and Organization, which examines the ways in which an author guides the reader's understanding of the text's line of reasoning and claims.
- Some questions you might see:
- In sentence 2, the writer wants an effective transition from the introductory paragraph to the main idea of the passage. Which of the following versions of the underlined text best achieves this purpose?
- The writer wants to add a sentence after sentence 4 that develops the narrative in the second paragraph in a way that makes the audience feel the impact of the loss of the local lake. Which of the following sentences best accomplishes this goal?
- Some questions you might see:
- Style, which examines the strategic rhetorical moves an author makes to enhance their argument.
- Some questions you might see:
- In the context of Paragraph 2, "Self-consciousness" means...
- Which of the following best describes the function of the second sentence in the first paragraph?
- Some questions you might see:
- Rhetorical Situation, which examines the exigence, audience, writer, purpose, context, and message of a given text
- These Big Ideas are tested in both sections of the test; the exam tests your ability to both recognize in reading various texts and use in your own writing the elements encompassed in these ideas.
- Remember that there are two types of passages on the multiple choice section:
- The first tests your analytical reading skills to determine how well you can read informational texts and the author's use of various rhetorical tools.
- The second asks you to "think like a writer" and make revisions to drafts of texts.