How to Analyze a Reading Comprehension Argument Structure Question
In addition to the long, boring reading comprehension passages (that everyone hates!), we will also see quite short passages that are perhaps more appropriately called arguments. We might be asked to strengthen or weaken the conclusion, find the conclusion, articulate the role of a specific piece of information, and so on. Today we’re going to talk about Analyze the Argument Structure questions.
We’re going to use the analysis process that we discussed in a previous article; please take a look at that article first if you haven’t already.
We want to average about 1.5 to 2 minutes on RC questions in general, so set your timer for either 1.5 minutes (if RC is a strength) or 2 minutes (if RC is a weakness). (© ManhattanPrep)
(1) Local authorities are considering an amendment to the litter law that would raise the fine for littering in the community picnic area to $1,000. (2) Advocates say that raising the fine will make people take notice of the law. (3) They may be correct that higher fines get more attention. (4) Since the inception of the litter law, incremental increases in the littering fine have proven to be consistently effective at further reducing the amount of litter in the community picnic area. (5) However, raising the fine to $1,000 would actually have the unintended effect of increasing the amount of litter in the picnic area. (6) Picnic area users would perceive this fine to be unreasonable and unenforceable, and would disregard the litter law altogether.
Select the sentence, by clicking on the passage itself, that provides support for the author’s position in the passage.
Note: the real test will not number the sentences; we’ll just be able to click on a specific sentence to highlight it. We can’t do that in this article, though, and it’s a lot easier to talk about the sentences if we number them, so voila. I inserted numbers. : )
The first thing everybody does is check the answer “ so I’ll tell you that the answer is Sentence 6. Even if you answered correctly, though, you’re not done! You still need to analyze the problem.
I’ve reproduced the questions from the How To Analyze article below, but in a shorter form. I’ve followed the questions with italicized notes. These italics represent what I would think to myself when analyzing this problem.
Note: I’m going to pretend that I chose sentence 5 (a wrong answer!).
1. Did I know WHAT they were trying to test?
Questions: Was I able to categorize this question? Did I comprehend all the words, vocab, concepts, and answer choices? Do I know what I’m supposed to do for questions of this type?
Note: First, we read the question stem (before reading the argument) so that we know what kind of question we have.
This one is almost a little bit of a cross between Strengthen and Analyze Argument Structure. At first, it looks like a Strengthen because of the words provides support. The question is not asking me to find a new piece of information in the answer choices, however. Instead, it’s asking me to find the specific sentence already given in the argument that functions as a premise, or supporting piece of information. Ultimately, it’s asking me to figure something out about the structure of the argument.
2. How well did I HANDLE what they were trying to test?
Questions: How was my approach? Did I have the skills to follow through? Did I make any careless mistakes? If so, WHY did I make each mistake? How could I have made an educated guess? Do I understand the traps built into the question, including wrong answers?
I messed up on this one. I picked Sentence 5; the correct answer is Sentence 6. I didn’t even really consider sentence 6; I just picked sentence 5 as soon as I got to it.
Most of the time, I’ll read the explanation, but this time I decided to look at the question again. I had been convinced I was right, so I wanted to see whether I could figure out where I went wrong.
First, was I answering the right question? Re-reading it, I’m still sure that it’s asking me to find a premise that supports the author’s conclusion. Okay, let’s read the passage again.
The first sentence is just a fact: the authorities are considering this amendment. Sentence 2 tells me what the advocates, or people in favor of the amendment, think. This is a supporting premise for anyone who likes the amendment, but I don’t know whether the author likes the amendment.
The third sentence is interesting; it says that the advocates may be correct. If I were a supporter of the amendment, I’d say something like, The advocates are correct; higher fines get more attention. The language may be indicates something else: the author probably doesn’t agree with the advocates overall, even though they may be correct about this one small point. Interesting.
Sentence 4 gives another piece of support for the amendment: if other increases helped reduce litter, then why wouldn’t this increase do the same? So far, everything has been about or in support of the amendment. That all changes with sentence 5 (However). Now we get to hear what the author thinks about all of this; he thinks that the $1,000 fine would actually increase litter, not decrease it!
Oh, I think I see my mistake. Sentence 5 is what he thinks will happen “ this is his conclusion. Sentence 6 tells me why he thinks the amount of litter will increase, so sentence 6 is actually the one that provides supporting information for the author’s conclusion.
I could also imagine that sentence 4 is a popular trap answer, because that sentence supports the other side of the argument “ the people who think that the amendment is a good idea.
3. How well did I or could I RECOGNIZE what was going on?
Questions: Did I make a connection to previous experience? Can I make any connections now, while I’m analyzing the problem? HOW will I recognize similar problems in the future?
Sigh. I didn’t read the entire argument carefully; as soon as I saw sentence 5, which was such a contrast to the first four sentences, I just jumped at it. I need to make sure that I read the entire thing before picking my answer, particularly on Structure questions. If I don’t know all of the pieces of the structure, then I can’t confidently pick out the role that each sentence plays.
So I’ve got a new rule for myself: on all short passages / arguments, I read to the end before I start picking answers, especially for these Structure questions.
And there you have it “ that’s how to analyze an RC Analyze Structure problem. Note that I didn’t answer every single question on the lists of questions. You don’t need to do that (if you tried, you’d be studying each problem for half an hour!). Rather, pick and choose the particular questions that you need based on how things went for each problem.
You can also go through some aspects of the question more quickly. Because my main problem here was a careless mistake based on a lazy process, my main takeaway was centered around how to develop a better process so that I wouldn’t continue to make that same kind of mistake in future.