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Hey
Can anyone please tell me what they mean by read for strcutre? I am getting my ass kicked in RC. People say don't read for content but then I have no idea what's going on. I have read the PS bibles, and I have read Voyer's guide, AND I have taken the Blue Print course but sad to say, I suck. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

meandme wrote:Hey
Can anyone please tell me what they mean by read for strcutre? I am getting my ass kicked in RC. People say don't read for content but then I have no idea what's going on. I have read the PS bibles, and I have read Voyer's guide, AND I have taken the Blue Print course but sad to say, I suck. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Essentially, instead of trying to memorize every single detail of the passage, you want to have a general understanding of how the passage proceeds. For instance, suppose in an RC passage, paragraph 1 argues for a certain and provides evidence for that, and in paragraph 2, the author argues for an alternative position and provides evidence. You will want to note that these paragraphs have these general structures (and therefore making it easier to refer back to the passage), rather than trying to memorize exactly what the evidence, etc. is for each view point.

Basically, when ppl say read for structure, they mean: take note of various elements within a passage (note attitude markers, shifts, POVs, places of examples, etc). If you read and try to really understand the passage and memorize every detail, you will probably screw yourself over.

For RC, I try to hit the following things:

- Main point
- Title
- Author's tone
- Purpose
- The structure of the passage: for eg: introduces a contention, explains one, explains the other, then argues for one - stuff like that

Usually I also mark a couple things where I feel the possibility of inference questions.

The other thing that I mark up are the number of reasons given for something. Take for example PT # 7 passage 1 - one of the question asks you "all of the following are reasons stated in the passage except" - so when I looked back, I had the 4 underlined and i just needed to see what wasn't there.

Thank you guys for the help.