English 11 / Unit 10: Test Skills for Reading and Writing
10.7 Rhetorical Synthesis and Test Strategy
Notes
Some questions give bulleted notes and ask which sentence best accomplishes a goal (for example, to introduce a topic to an audience new to it).
- Read the goal first, then choose the sentence that includes the details the goal requires and nothing extra.
- Strategy: read the question first, use process of elimination, return to skipped questions, and never leave an answer blank on a test with no guessing penalty.
- Wrong answers often repeat a word from the passage but change its meaning or add an unsupported claim.
- Worked example: notes about a new bike lane (length 3 miles, opened in May, links two parks). Goal: emphasize the connection. Best sentence: "A new three-mile bike lane connects the city's two largest parks."
Practice
Notes: "The Tidewater Trail is 8 miles long. It opens in June. It follows an old rail line. It connects two towns." Goal: write one sentence that tells readers what the trail connects. Which choice best does this?
Only the third states what the trail connects.
A student is unsure about an answer and has only a minute left. Which strategy is best?
Elimination improves the odds and uses reasoning.
A wrong answer choice often:
Distractors imitate the passage to look tempting.
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