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Question 1. What is the Passage Type?
Question 2. What is each paragraph about?
Question 3. What is the Organization??
Question 4. What is the Big Idea?
Question 5. What is the author’s purpose?
| NOTE: Some essays are short and only one paragraph. In these cases you
obviously don't have to analyze the relationship between paragraphs. |
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Why focus on each paragraph?
Each paragraph is the basic unit of the essay. By breaking this unwieldy and
cumbersome essay into bite-sized pieces, we can more easily comprehend what
is going on and track the organizational structure.
How do I do this?
When reading a paragraph and after finishing it, make a mental and/or written
note of three things:
1. Main Idea of each paragraph - What is the author’s
purpose?
Usually the first sentence in a paragraph will be a topic sentence or transition
sentence (or both). It should tell you the main idea of the paragraph or the
paragraph’s relation to the preceding one. Pay close attention to the
first sentence in each paragraph.
2. Tone of each paragraph
Did the author’s style suddenly change in this paragraph? Did the author’s
tone change from supportive (of the author’s point of view in a prior
paragraph) to contemptuous of an opposing point of view?
Some common tones are:
A) Jubilant (=Happy)
B) Lamenting (= Sad)
C) Livid (=Outraged)
D) Awed (=impressed)
E) Ambivalent (=undecided)
As you are reading the essay, keep an eye out for these tone indicators.
The first paragraph in essays are often “backgrounders” that provide
a background to the issue. This paragraph may be detached and objective. Then
in the second paragraph the author will lay out his point of view and the tone
will change.
To draw an analogy, the tone is like the background music in a movie. When the
villain steps in, the music becomes dark and foreboding. When the hero steps
in the music becomes more optimistic and heroic. The author’s tone sets
the context for the ideas being expressed and helps the reader follow the ideas.
Tone can shift suddenly in a new paragraph:
There are increasing indications that academic research
has separated itself from practical concerns to such an extent that, in
many academic arenas, the transition from theory to practice has vanished
entirely. Indeed, public and private institutions alike are awakening to
the need to infuse scholarship with an “ear” for the practically
useful. Yet, the problem appears intractable, with a chasm between academics
and practitioners that grows only wider. Only radical change will steer
academia back toward a collaboration with practical concern. But who could
devise such a radical, yet effective, strategy?
I can. I have the answer. All academic research must seek
private funding. Scholarship without funding has no justification
for existence. You, naturally, think my idea is preposterous.
Surely I understand that commercial value is separate from
scholarly significance? Yet it is you who are mistaken.
You do not understand that the market is the most efficient
measure of worth, be it commercial or scholarly. You again
object, this time almost in a panic, that I speak nonsense.
But you are merely afraid of what you know to be the one
viable path for modern academia. Follow or be left behind
in your blind fear of the most fundamental economic truths.
This is the only way.
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The first paragraph sets up the problem: academics have lost touch with real life.
The second paragraph signals a tone shift from explanatory to aggressively persuasive,
reflecting a shift in purpose from explaining a problem to aggressively advocating
a solution.
“Aggressive” fits the tone of the second paragraph, but you won’t
see that word on the test. Try: “arrogant”, “overly confident”,
or even “dogmatic” (believing in something whether or not it’s
supported by evidence).
Tone shifts occur within paragraphs.
When I glanced first at the creation, it
was just a bud, struggling upwards. The ants paid it no
mind as they strolled past in their never relenting search
for food. By mid-summer, the bud has become a flower, a
colorful bloom flirting with the sunlight that slides past.
I sat amid the blooming flower and the ants in their faint
green home and I looked upwards. I think of the unfolding
dramas I will never know. I realize I am a student among
many teachers and, while I wait attentively for the next
lesson, I hear the voices of an unbroken string of life.
In unison billions of voices chant: so you come to learn?
But what will you do with the knowledge? I realize I and
my kind have lost the right to sit in this class. |
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It’s tempting to call this tone “crazy”, but a more descriptive
choice is “dreamy”. The last sentence throws a curve: “disapproving”
is the author’s attitude toward humankind. Think about how that might affect
the main idea of the passage.
3. Relation to preceding paragraph
Look at the last sentence of the preceding paragraph and contrast it with the
introductory sentence of the paragraph you are reading. A good writer will make
a smooth transition to a new paragraph with a new idea. After each paragraph,
mentally note the relation to the preceding paragraph.The paragraph is the main
structural unit of any passage. To find a paragraph's purpose, ask yourself:
1) Why did the author include this paragraph?
2) What shift did the author have in mind when moving on to this paragraph?
3) What bearing does this paragraph have on the main idea of the passage so far?
If you get the main idea, tone, and relation to the preceding paragraph, you should
be able to answer these three questions.
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