Lessons · Teaching · how a passage is built, and why the author built it
How it is built, and why
Structure questions ask what a part is doing for the whole: why this paragraph is here, what this example supports, why the author mentioned an objection. The answer is a job, not a summary. 'It describes a study' is a summary; 'it supplies evidence for the claim in the previous paragraph' is a job.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
This is the question type that transfers most directly into your classroom. A teacher who can name what a paragraph is doing can teach a child to write one. It is also where a summary-shaped option is most tempting, because a summary is true and requires no thought about the passage's architecture.
How to think about it
Read the sentence before the part you are asked about and the sentence after it. A part's job is almost always visible from its neighbours: it supports what came before, sets up what comes after, or turns against one of them. Then choose the option phrased as a job rather than as a description.
Worked example
A paragraph beginning 'Critics reply that...' is raising an objection, usually to answer itIts job is to strengthen the author's case by taking the strongest thing against it seriously.
An example directly after a general claim is evidence for that claimThe position in the passage tells you the job before the content does.
A final paragraph that widens out is applying the argument, not adding to itWhich is why an option saying it 'introduces a new argument' is usually wrong.
'Describes an experiment' against 'supports the claim that the method works'Both true. Only the second answers the question that was asked.
Your turn
Name what a structure question wants an answer to be.
It asks for the part's , not a summary of it
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Answering from the paragraph alone. A part's job is defined by its relationship to its neighbours, so an answer produced without reading either side is a summary with a job-shaped sentence wrapped around it.