A Craft and Structure type (8.2% of the bank) that asks what a text is doing rather than what it says. Covers the function of an underlined sentence within its paragraph, the overall shape of a short passage, the deletion test for identifying a sentence's job, and the crucial distinction between an accurate summary of content and a correct statement of function — with six worked examples, four traps and three checks.
Subject: SAT Prep · 61 slides · applied lesson
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Title
SAT Reading & Writing · Type 7 of 10
8.2% of the question bank — 138 of 1688 questions
Objectives
Two questions live under this label. One asks what job a particular sentence performs for the paragraph around it. The other asks what shape the whole passage has. Both are about function rather than content, and the wrong answers are nearly always accurate descriptions of what the text says.
One question governs the type: what is this sentence FOR? If your answer begins with it says, you have answered a different question.
Naruhodo Tutoring — SAT Reading and Writing question bank export (sat-english-question-index.json) — 138 tagged questions of this type in the site's bank
Section
Section 1
Concept
Two questions live under this label. One asks what job a particular sentence performs for the paragraph around it. The other asks what shape the whole passage has. Both are about function rather than content, and the wrong answers are nearly always accurate descriptions of what the text says.
You will see it phrased in these ways:
The signature words are purpose, function and structure. All three ask what the text does, and none asks what it says.
Picture it
The same three-panel card as the survey deck, so the shorthand carries over: what identifies it, what you write first, and what is built to catch you.
Figure (svg): Text Structure and Purpose: the tell, the move, and the trap
The choices beginning with verbs are the tell. Introduces, challenges, illustrates and qualifies are all functions, and the question is which one this sentence performs.
Prediction
The distinction the whole type rests on.
Predict first
A sentence reads: but a 1998 experiment found the opposite. Which statement describes its FUNCTION?
Correct: It introduces evidence that undercuts the view just described
Why: Only the first choice says what the sentence DOES for the paragraph — it supplies a counter-example to what came before. The other three all accurately describe what the sentence says, which is a different question. They are summaries of content, and every one of them is true. Function answers begin with a verb describing an action performed on the argument: introduces, undercuts, qualifies, illustrates.
Concept
Two questions under one label, needing different scopes of reading.
| variant | what it asks | how much to read |
|---|---|---|
| Sentence purpose | what job one sentence does | the sentence plus what surrounds it |
| Paragraph function | what job a paragraph does in the text | the paragraph plus its neighbours |
| Overall structure | the shape of the whole passage | the entire text, summarised in parts |
The sentence-purpose version is the most common. It is also the one where reading only the underlined sentence guarantees failure, since a function is a relationship to the surroundings.
Definition probe
Functions are actions performed on an argument.
Sort into buckets
What is each sentence doing?
Discrimination
Six descriptions of the same sentence.
Sort into buckets
Does each describe what the sentence DOES, or what it SAYS?
Warm-up
Try it before the rules.
Discussion prompt
A paragraph describes a long-held theory, and then one sentence reads: yet three independent teams have now failed to reproduce the result. What is that sentence's purpose?
Hint: What would the paragraph lose without it?
Answer:
Its purpose is to introduce evidence that undermines the theory just described.
The deletion test shows it: remove the sentence and the paragraph describes a theory with nothing said against it. The whole challenge disappears.
What it SAYS is that three teams failed to reproduce a result. That is accurate and it is not a purpose.
The word yet is the signal. It marks the sentence as turning against what came before, which is a relationship rather than a content.
A good purpose answer names an action — undermines, challenges, casts doubt on — and names what it acts upon.
Pattern
Three steps, and the first is a question about the surroundings.
Read the sentence before the underlined one and the sentence after it.
Why: A function is a relationship to the surroundings, so the surroundings must be read. The underlined sentence alone cannot tell you its job.
Delete the sentence mentally and ask what the paragraph loses.
Why: Whatever is lost is the sentence's function — the evidence disappears, the transition breaks, the qualification vanishes.
State the function as a verb phrase, then find the choice that matches it.
Why: Introduces, challenges, illustrates, qualifies. If your phrase begins with it says, you have described content instead.
The deletion test is the workhorse. It converts a vague question about purpose into a concrete question about what is missing.
Section
Section 2
Concept
A purpose is a relationship between the sentence and the argument around it, not a summary of the sentence.
Scan the verbs at the start of each choice. That alone separates the function answers from the content answers before you evaluate any of them.
Concept
Remove the sentence and ask what the paragraph loses.
| what is lost | the function was |
|---|---|
| the evidence for a claim | to support the claim |
| the objection to a view | to challenge that view |
| the limitation on a generalisation | to qualify it |
| the concrete case | to illustrate the general point |
| the reason | to explain |
| the orientation for a reader | to introduce the topic |
This converts an abstract question into a concrete one, which is why it is the most reliable move on the type.
Prediction
Scan the openings of the choices.
Predict first
Which choice describes a FUNCTION rather than content?
Correct: It anticipates an objection to the author's argument
Why: Anticipates an objection names an action performed on the argument — the sentence is doing something to the reasoning around it. Describes, mentions and states are content verbs: each merely restates what the sentence contains. Scanning the opening verbs of the four choices separates function answers from content answers in about three seconds.
Concept
A function is a relationship, so it cannot be read off the sentence in isolation.
Reading only the underlined sentence is the single most common cause of failure on this type.
Prediction
What does the paragraph lose?
Predict first
Deleting a sentence would leave the paragraph's central claim with no support. What was the sentence's function?
Correct: To provide evidence for the claim
Why: If removing the sentence leaves the claim unsupported, the sentence was what supported it. Restating would mean the paragraph loses a repetition rather than its support. Introducing a new topic would mean losing a subject, not evidence. And qualifying would mean the claim survives but becomes broader — not unsupported.
Concept
Reduce each section of the passage to a short phrase, then match the sequence against the choices.
Writing three words per part takes twenty seconds and makes the sequence comparable with the choices directly.
Concept
A choice can name the right components in the wrong sequence.
This is the structure-question equivalent of the content trap: the parts are all correct and the shape is wrong.
Prediction
The parts can be right and the sequence wrong.
Predict first
A passage first reports an experiment, then offers an explanation for its result. Which describes it?
Correct: It presents a finding and then proposes an account of it
Why: The sequence is finding first, explanation second, and only one choice preserves that order. The second choice contains exactly the same two components in the opposite sequence, which is the standard structure-question distractor. The third and fourth describe shapes the passage does not have at all.
Concept
A small set of jobs covers most of what a sentence can be doing.
| function | typical signal |
|---|---|
| Introducing a topic | opens the paragraph, defines a term |
| Presenting evidence | a study, a figure, a case |
| Challenging a claim | but, yet, however, in fact |
| Qualifying a claim | although, admittedly, in some cases |
| Illustrating a point | for instance, one such, consider |
| Drawing a conclusion | thus, this suggests, therefore |
This table is largely the same as the transitions table, which is no accident: both types are about relationships between parts of a text.
Concept
The wrong answers on this type are almost always accurate.
This is the same structure as Command of Evidence: every choice is true, and only relevance to the actual question discriminates.
Prediction
The same sentence, two paragraphs.
Predict first
A sentence reporting a failed replication follows a paragraph endorsing a theory. Its function is most likely to
Correct: cast doubt on the theory just endorsed
Why: A failed replication following an endorsement stands against what came before, so its job is to undercut it. The same sentence following a paragraph that criticised the theory would instead be providing support for that criticism — which is exactly why the neighbours have to be read. A function is a relationship, and the relationship changes with the context.
Two truths and a lie
Three of these statements about purpose questions are correct. The one left standing is false.
Eliminate the wrong options
Which statement is FALSE?
Survives elimination: c
Why: A function is a relationship between the sentence and the text around it, so it cannot be determined in isolation. The same sentence reporting a failed replication challenges a theory if it follows an endorsement and supports a criticism if it follows one. Reading only the underlined sentence is the most common cause of failure on this type, precisely because it makes the content answers look like the only available ones.
Check
Read the neighbours, then delete.
Check your understanding
A paragraph argues that urban green spaces reduce stress. The underlined sentence reads: participants who visited a park daily reported 22 per cent lower cortisol levels. What is its main purpose?
Answer: A
Why: Deleting the sentence would leave the claim about green spaces with no evidence behind it. What is lost is the support, so that is the function.
Choice B is the designed trap. It is a precise summary of the sentence and it answers a question that was not asked.
Section
Section 3
Worked example
A paragraph describes a widely accepted theory. The underlined sentence reads: yet three independent teams have failed to reproduce the central result. What is its purpose?
Figure (svg): Three sentences with the job each performs in the paragraph
Read the neighbours: the theory is described before, and revisiting follows after.
Why: The function is a relationship, so the surroundings determine it.
Delete the sentence: the paragraph would describe a theory and then say it is being revisited, with no reason given.
Why: What is lost is the evidence that motivates the revision.
State the function: it introduces evidence undermining the theory just described.
Why: A verb naming an action on the argument, plus what it acts upon.
A distractor here would read: it reports that three teams failed to reproduce a result. Perfectly accurate, and it names no function at all.
Verify: check the signal word: yet marks a turn against what came before.
Why: The internal signal confirms the relationship identified from the surroundings.
Answer: to introduce evidence that undermines the theory just described
Worked example
A paragraph claims that several desert species avoid drinking entirely. The underlined sentence reads: the kangaroo rat, for instance, obtains all its water from metabolising seeds. What is its purpose?
Figure (svg): Three candidate purposes filtered against the function question
Read the preceding sentence: a general claim about several species.
Why: An example needs a general point to be an example of.
Delete the sentence: the general claim would stand with no concrete case supporting it.
Why: What is lost is the illustration, which is the function.
State it: it illustrates the general claim with a specific case.
Why: For instance inside the sentence confirms the reading.
The signal phrase for instance does most of the work here. Scanning for such signals is faster than reasoning about the paragraph from scratch.
Verify: check the direction: the kangaroo rat supports the claim rather than complicating it.
Why: An illustration agrees with what it illustrates, which rules out challenge readings.
Answer: to illustrate the general claim with a specific example
Worked example
A paragraph argues that the treatment is highly effective. The underlined sentence reads: in patients over seventy, however, the benefit was much smaller. What is its purpose?
Figure (svg): Three candidate purposes for a qualifying sentence
Read the preceding claim: the treatment is highly effective.
Why: A qualification needs something to qualify.
Delete the sentence: the claim would stand unrestricted, applying equally to all patients.
Why: What is lost is the limitation, which is the function.
State it: it limits the scope of the claim to exclude older patients.
Why: However signals the turn, and the claim survives in narrowed form.
Qualifying and rejecting are the pair most often confused. A qualification narrows a claim; a rejection denies it. Ask whether the original claim survives.
Verify: check whether the claim is withdrawn: it is not — the treatment still works, just less so in one group.
Why: That distinction separates qualifying from rejecting, which is the closest distractor.
Answer: to qualify the preceding claim by noting a limitation
Step zero
Not the underlined sentence.
Discussion prompt
A question asks for the purpose of an underlined sentence. What do you read first, and why not the sentence itself?
Hint: A function is a relationship.
Answer:
Read the sentence BEFORE the underlined one, and the sentence after it.
Why not the underlined sentence first: its function is a relationship to its surroundings, and reading it alone tells you only its content.
Content is exactly what the wrong answers describe, so starting there primes you to accept them.
The same sentence can have opposite functions depending on what precedes it — challenging a claim, or supporting a criticism of that claim.
Then apply the deletion test: remove the sentence and ask what the paragraph loses. What is lost is the function.
Worked example
A short passage: a puzzling observation is described; two possible explanations are offered; evidence favouring one is presented. Which choice describes its structure?
Figure (svg): Three parts of a passage with the job of each
Summarise each part in three or four words: puzzle, two explanations, evidence favouring one.
Why: Short summaries make the sequence directly comparable with the choices.
Note the ORDER: the puzzle comes first and the resolution last.
Why: Distractors routinely reorder the same components.
Match: a phenomenon is presented, competing accounts are offered, and one is supported.
Why: The choice must preserve both the components and their sequence.
Structure questions reward writing rather than remembering. Three words per part on paper takes twenty seconds and makes the comparison mechanical.
Verify: check a reordered distractor: two explanations are offered, then a puzzling observation is described.
Why: Same components, wrong order, which is why the sequence must be checked explicitly.
Answer: a phenomenon is described, competing explanations are offered, and evidence supports one
Worked example
The sentence: a 2011 review found no significant effect. What is its function if it follows a paragraph endorsing the treatment, and what if it follows one criticising it?
Figure (svg): One sentence performing two different functions in two contexts
After an endorsement, the review cuts against what preceded it.
Why: A finding of no effect opposes a claim that the treatment works.
After a criticism, the same review reinforces what preceded it.
Why: The identical finding now agrees with the surrounding argument.
So the sentence's function is not a property of the sentence.
Why: It is a relationship, determined by what surrounds it.
This is the clearest demonstration that reading only the underlined sentence cannot work. The content is fixed and the function is not.
Verify: note that the CONTENT is identical in both cases: a 2011 review found no significant effect.
Why: Identical content with different functions proves the two are separate questions.
Answer: it challenges in the first case and supports in the second
Faded example
From memory. Four lines that carry the type.
Fill in the blanks
A function is a relationship between the sentence and the text around it. To identify it, delete the sentence and ask what the paragraph loses. Wrong answers are usually accurate summaries of the content. And a function answer begins with a verb such as challenges, illustrates or qualifies.
Why: The first blank explains why the third is true. Because a function is a relationship, the sentence alone cannot supply it — so answers derived from the sentence alone will always be content answers, however accurate.
Worked example
For a sentence introducing a study's methodology, which of these is a purpose and which are summaries?
Figure (svg): One function answer and two content answers
Scan the opening verbs: establishes, describes, states.
Why: Establishes acts on the argument; describes and states restate content.
Apply the deletion test: without the sentence, the later findings would arrive with no basis for judging them.
Why: What is lost is the grounding, which is the function.
So the function answer is the one naming what the sentence provides for the reader.
Why: A function names a service performed for the argument.
Scanning the opening verbs of the four choices is the fastest first filter on this type, and it often eliminates two immediately.
Verify: check that both rejected choices are accurate: they are.
Why: Their accuracy confirms the discrimination was about function rather than truth.
Answer: it establishes the basis on which the later findings should be judged
Fill the middle
A small set covers most sentences.
Fill in the blanks
A sentence beginning with for instance is likely to illustrate. One beginning with but or yet is likely to challenge. One beginning with although or admittedly is likely to qualify. And one beginning with thus or this suggests is likely to conclude.
Why: These signal words appear inside the sentence itself and announce its function directly. Scanning for them is much faster than reasoning about the paragraph from scratch, and it agrees with the deletion test in nearly every case.
Estimation
Three seconds, before evaluating any choice.
Predict first
Which opening verb signals a FUNCTION answer rather than a content one?
Correct: It qualifies...
Why: Qualifies names an action performed on the argument — it limits a claim made elsewhere in the text. Mentions, states and describes all merely restate what the sentence contains, and describe no relationship to anything. Scanning the opening verbs is the fastest first filter on this type, and it often eliminates two or three choices before any of them is read in full.
Check
Does the original claim survive?
Check your understanding
A paragraph states that the method is reliable. The underlined sentence reads: for samples smaller than fifty, however, its accuracy drops sharply. What is its main purpose?
Answer: A
Why: The method remains reliable in general; the sentence carves out one situation where it is not. That is a qualification — narrowing the claim rather than withdrawing it.
Choices A and B both name relationships, so the verb filter does not separate them. Asking whether the original claim survives does.
Section
Section 4
Trap
The trap. A choice reads: it reports that three teams failed to reproduce the result. That is precisely what the sentence says.
You check it against the text, it matches perfectly, and you select it.
But the question asked what the sentence DOES, and reporting a finding is not a function — it is a restatement.
The fix. Scan the opening verbs of the four choices before reading any of them fully.
Reports, mentions, states and describes are content verbs; challenges, qualifies and illustrates are function verbs.
Trap
The trap. You read the underlined sentence carefully and try to determine its purpose from it.
But a function is a relationship, and a relationship needs two things. The sentence alone gives you only its content.
So the only answers that seem supportable are the content ones, which is exactly the trap.
The fix. Read the sentence before and the sentence after, every time.
The function is determined by what surrounds it, not by what it contains.
Error analysis
A student's choice on a purpose question. The choice is entirely accurate.
Annotate
On: \( \text{Purpose of: 'Yet three teams failed to reproduce it'} \;\Rightarrow\; \text{chose: it reports a failed replication} \)
This is the same shape as the Command of Evidence trap: every choice is true, and truth is not what the question is asking about. Accuracy cannot discriminate when all four choices have it.
Trap
The trap. A sentence notes that a treatment works less well in one group, and you choose a purpose describing it as rejecting the claim.
The claim was not rejected — it was narrowed. The treatment still works, just less so in that group.
Both choices name a relationship, so the function-verb filter does not separate them.
The fix. Ask whether the original claim SURVIVES in narrowed form or is withdrawn entirely.
Surviving means qualification; withdrawn means rejection.
Elimination
A sentence reads: but in colder climates the effect reverses entirely. What is its purpose?
Eliminate the wrong options
Which choice names a function? Three fail on their opening verb.
Survives elimination: a
Why: Only the first choice names an action performed on the argument — limiting the scope of a finding stated earlier. The other three all open with content verbs and merely restate what the sentence says, accurately. Scanning the first two words of each choice eliminated three options before any was read in full.
Trap
The trap. A structure choice names all the components the passage contains, so you select it.
But it lists them in the wrong sequence — an explanation before the finding it explains, or a resolution before the problem.
Every component is correct, which is what makes the choice so plausible.
The fix. Write three words per part of the passage, in order, and compare sequences rather than vocabulary.
The order is part of the structure.
Counterexample
A method that seems obviously right.
Discussion prompt
A student says: I can find a sentence's purpose by reading the sentence carefully. Give a counterexample.
Hint: Take one sentence and change what precedes it.
Answer:
Counterexample: the sentence a 2011 review found no significant effect.
Placed after a paragraph endorsing the treatment, its function is to challenge that endorsement.
Placed after a paragraph criticising the treatment, the identical sentence supports that criticism.
The content is identical in both cases and the function is opposite, so no amount of careful reading of the sentence alone can determine it.
The mechanism: a function is a relationship between the sentence and its surroundings, and a relationship needs two terms.
The corrected method: read the neighbours, then apply the deletion test to see what the paragraph would lose.
Edge cases
The deletion test identifies most functions. When does it need help?
Discussion prompt
What do you do when deleting the sentence seems to lose very little, or when two choices both name something that would be lost?
Hint: Consider what kind of loss each choice describes.
Answer:
If deleting seems to lose little, you have probably not read far enough. Check whether a later sentence depends on it — a conclusion drawn from it, or a term it defined.
If two choices both name a genuine loss, ask which loss is the PRIMARY one. A sentence may both give evidence and introduce a term, and the question asks for its main purpose.
Prefer the loss that affects the argument over the loss of a detail. Losing a supporting reason matters more than losing a date.
Check the signal words inside the sentence. But, for instance, admittedly and thus each announce a specific job, and the announced job is usually the primary one.
And for structure questions the analogous check is scope: does the choice describe the whole passage, or only one part of it? A choice accurately describing one paragraph fails as a description of the text.
Check
Summarise each part, then check the order.
Check your understanding
A passage opens by describing a long-standing puzzle in linguistics, then presents a recent computational study, and closes by noting that the study's method has been criticised. Which describes its structure?
Answer: A
Why: The three parts in order are: a puzzle, a study addressing it, and a criticism of that study's method. Only the first choice preserves both the components and their sequence.
Choice B is the standard structure distractor: every component is correct and the sequence is wrong. Writing three words per part, numbered, makes it visible immediately.
Section
Section 5
Matching
Six sentences from one paragraph, six jobs.
Match the pairs
Why: Six sentences and six distinct jobs, forming a complete and typical paragraph shape: topic, established view, counter-evidence, illustration, qualification, conclusion. Recognising this shape helps on structure questions too, since most SAT passages are built from a small number of such sequences.
Sorting
All six describe the same underlined sentence.
Sort into buckets
Does each describe function or content?
Three of six are content answers, which is a fair reflection of a real question. The opening verb alone separates them, which is why scanning the verbs first is worth the three seconds.
Comparison
Fill the blanks from memory.
Comparison matrix
| content answer | function answer | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical opening verb | reports, mentions, states, describes | challenges, qualifies, illustrates, establishes |
| What it names | what the sentence says | what the sentence does for the argument |
| Is it accurate? | yes, usually completely | yes — accuracy does not separate them |
| How to identify it | it could be written from the sentence alone | it requires reading the neighbours |
The bottom row is the most useful test. If a choice could have been written by someone who read only the underlined sentence, it is a content answer.
Trade off
Fill in what each is worth.
Comparison matrix
| method | speed | reliability |
|---|---|---|
| Scan the opening verbs of the choices | about three seconds | eliminates content answers, not always all of them |
| Look for signal words in the sentence | about five seconds | high — but, for instance and thus announce the job |
| Apply the deletion test | about fifteen seconds | highest — it names the function directly |
| Read the underlined sentence alone | fastest | none — it can only produce content answers |
The first three combine well: scan the verbs to eliminate, check for a signal word to predict, then confirm with the deletion test if two choices remain.
Real world
One minute on why function matters.
Discussion prompt
Why is it useful to be able to say what a paragraph is doing rather than what it says?
Answer:
Because it is how you follow a long argument. Summarising every paragraph's content is exhausting; tracking what each one DOES is compact and reliable.
A reader who can say this paragraph concedes a point and the next one answers it has understood the shape of the argument, and can hold a twenty-page article in mind.
It is also how you spot a weak argument. A paper with four paragraphs of background and none of evidence has a structural problem visible only at the function level.
And it is how good writing is planned. Writers decide what each paragraph must DO before deciding what it will say, which is exactly the Rhetorical Synthesis skill from the other direction.
The SAT version is small — one sentence, or one short passage — but the skill scales directly to reading anything difficult.
Ranking
All four describe the same sentence. Order from pure content to pure function.
Put in order
Why: The first names a single detail and nothing else. The second summarises the whole sentence and still describes only content. The third mentions support, which begins to name a relationship, though it leads with reporting. The fourth is purely functional: it names what the sentence does for the paragraph, with no restatement of what it says. The gradient is worth noticing, because real distractors often sit in the middle, mixing a summary with a hint of function.
Concept
This type is 8.2 per cent of the section and turns on one distinction, which makes it quick to improve once that distinction is secure.
| session | what you do | why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sort forty answer choices into function and content, without reading any passages. | Isolates the distinction the whole type rests on. |
| 2 | Fifteen purpose questions, reading the neighbouring sentences before the underlined one. | Builds the habit that makes function answers visible. |
| 3 | Fifteen questions using the deletion test explicitly, writing what would be lost. | The most reliable method, practised until it is quick. |
| 4 | Ten structure questions, writing three words per part before reading any choice. | Prevents the right-parts-wrong-order trap. |
Naruhodo Tutoring — SAT Reading and Writing question bank export (sat-english-question-index.json) — filter the bank to this skill tag — 138 questions, roughly a third of each difficulty
Explain it to yourself
Close the deck.
Discussion prompt
Without looking, explain the difference between content and function, and describe the deletion test.
Hint: One of them is a relationship.
Answer:
Content is what the sentence says; function is what it does for the argument around it.
Function is a relationship, so it cannot be determined from the sentence alone — the same sentence can challenge or support depending on its neighbours.
The deletion test: remove the sentence and ask what the paragraph loses. What is lost is the function.
Content answers open with verbs like reports, mentions and states; function answers open with challenges, qualifies, illustrates and establishes.
If you also noted that every wrong answer is usually accurate, you have the observation that stops you checking choices against the text.
Explain it
Two minutes, out loud.
Discussion prompt
A friend picks answers that match the sentence perfectly and keeps getting purpose questions wrong. What do you tell them?
Answer:
Diagnose it: they are answering what does this sentence SAY, and the question asked what does it DO.
Give an analogy. In a conversation, a sentence might be an objection, an example, or a concession. Two people could say the same words and be doing different things.
Show it with the test. Take a sentence reporting a failed replication. After a paragraph endorsing a theory it challenges; after a paragraph criticising it, it supports. Same words, opposite jobs.
Then give the practical filter: look at the first two words of each choice. Reports, mentions and states are describing content. Challenges, qualifies and illustrates are describing function.
And the confirming move: delete the sentence and ask what the paragraph loses. Whatever is missing is the function.
Commit first
Commit before you check.
Predict first
A paragraph praises a new algorithm. An underlined sentence reads: on unstructured data, however, its accuracy falls below that of older methods. Its main purpose is to
Correct: identify a limitation of the algorithm being praised
Why: The sentence narrows the praise by naming a case where the algorithm underperforms, so its job is to qualify. The second choice is an accurate summary opening with a content verb. The third overstates — the algorithm is still good on structured data, so the claim is limited rather than rejected. The fourth describes a comparison that is incidental to the sentence's job in the paragraph.
Connect it up
Blank paper.
Draw it
Draw a paragraph as five stacked boxes, with one box highlighted as the underlined sentence. Draw arrows from the highlighted box to the boxes above and below it, labelled the function is a relationship. Beside it, write the deletion test: remove the sentence and ask what is lost. Underneath, make two columns headed CONTENT VERBS and FUNCTION VERBS, filling the first with reports, mentions, states and describes, and the second with challenges, qualifies, illustrates, establishes and anticipates. In a corner, sketch a structure question as three numbered parts with three words each, and note that the ORDER is part of the answer. At the bottom: WHAT IS THIS SENTENCE FOR?
Exit ticket
One question before you close the deck.
Predict first
You are stuck between two choices on a purpose question. Both are accurate descriptions of the sentence. What do you do?
Correct: Ask which one names what the sentence does for the paragraph
Why: Accuracy has already failed to separate them, as it usually does on this type. The question is which choice names a function — a relationship to the surrounding argument — rather than a summary. Matching the sentence more closely selects the better content answer, which is still the wrong kind of answer. And re-reading the underlined sentence cannot help, since its function is determined by its neighbours rather than by itself.
Recap
One type, one question: what is this sentence FOR?
| never do this | do this instead |
|---|---|
| Read only the underlined sentence | Read the sentence before and after it |
| Choose the most accurate summary | Choose the one naming a function |
| Accept a choice opening with reports or mentions | Those are content verbs |
| Call a narrowed claim a rejected one | Ask whether the claim survives in limited form |
| Match a structure choice on vocabulary alone | Check the sequence against your summaries |
| Assume accuracy means correctness | All four choices are usually accurate |
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