Brian Galvin is the Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep, where he oversees all of the company’s GMAT preparation courses.
While tackling a reading comprehension question, if readers focus on the structure of the passage – a one-sentence summary of “What” and “Why”: what is the paragraph about and why was it written? – they will have an easier time reading than if they allowed themselves to try to understand all of the potentially-complicated content, and they will set themselves up to efficiently answer the questions that follow.
To better highlight the importance of that strategy, consider one of the popular question types that may follow a passage you will see on test day. Function questions ask something to the extent of:
Why does the author quote Whitman in the second paragraph?
The author uses the word “ironically” in the third paragraph to…
In these cases, the question is asking you to determine the author’s intent. Almost always, the author’s intent when using a quote, statistic, or term is to prove the point that he is trying to make in that paragraph or section. If you have understood the “Why” of why the paragraph or section was written, you can make quick work of such a question by double-checking that portion to confirm that the term/stat/quote in question does, indeed, make that point.
Consider this section from a GMAT Reading Comprehension passage, and a question that follows (portions appear courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council):
Despite their many differences of temperament and of literary perspective, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman share certain beliefs. Common to all these writers is their humanistic perspective. Its basic premises are that humans are the spiritual center of the universe and that in them alone is the clue to nature, history, and ultimately the cosmos itself. Without denying outright the existence either of a deity or of brute matter, this perspective nevertheless rejects them as exclusive principles of interpretation and prefers to explain humans and the world in terms of humanity itself. This preference is expressed most clearly in the Transcendentalist principle that the structure of the universe literally duplicates the structure of the individual self; therefore, all knowledge begins with self-knowledge.
This common perspective is almost always universalized. Its emphasis is not upon the individual as a particular European or American, but upon the human as universal, freed from the accidents of time, space, birth, and talent. Thus, for Emerson, the "American Scholar" turns out to be simply "Man Thinking"; while, for Whitman, the "Song of Myself" merges imperceptibly into a song of all the "children of Adam, " where "every atom belongs to me as good belongs to you."
The author quotes Whitman primarily in order to
(A) show that the poet does not agree with Emerson
(B) indicate the way the poet uses the human ideal to praise himself
(C) illustrate a way the poet expresses the relationship of the individual to the humanistic universe
(D) demonstrate that the poet is concerned with the well-being of all humans
(E) prove that the poet uses real-world analogies in his prose
Structurally, the intent of the first paragraph is to introduce a common perspective that five prominent authors share. We can gauge that by looking at the terminology given in the passage:
Despite ________, (these authors) share certain beliefs. Common to all is ____________. This perspective… This preference…
The word “despite” introduces the idea that the first portion of that sentence will run counter to the main point, so we know that the second part (common beliefs) is the author’s main intent there. The second sentence, then, begins to describe what is common, and the subsequent sentences use the word “this” to refer back to that commonality. Even without too much effort on the details, we should be able to get the idea from that paragraph that:
“The author introduces a common theme between five different writers, and goes on to describe what is so common.” That’s kind of a vague description, but if that’s all you derive from this paragraph – which can certainly seem dense and bland to non-literary types – you’ve taken away the most important themes.
The second paragraph begins with the phrase “this common perspective…”, which should note that the author is going to describe that commonality introduced in the first paragraph a bit further. Since we’ve already set up the passage as a whole with a fairly well-defined topic paragraph (the author wants to discuss a common theme between five writers), it seems natural that the author is using the second paragraph to further explain that commonality. With that in mind, the What/Why of the second paragraph is something to the extent of:
“The author further explains the common perspective, noting that the authors see the individual as part of a larger universe.”
Because we know that the goal of the author in this paragraph is to demonstrate a bit further this common perspective, and in particular show that the authors use it to see the individual as universal, the reason that he would use any quotes or references in the paragraph is to further develop that point. Looking at the answer choices:
(A), the most popular incorrect choice in this question, does the opposite of the author’s intent. He hopes to demonstrate that these authors are common in their belief, but the answer choice says that they disagree. Even though the word “while” is used to separate the quotes of Emerson and Whitman, which in a vacuum might indicate that they do disagree, the author is clearly using those quotes to show their commonality – even if they have different ways of expressing it – so choice A is incorrect.
(B) also misses the scope of the author’s intent. The author is trying to demonstrate the commonalities of these authors, and not show their own self-promotional differences.
(C) expresses the author’s intent. He wants to show how the authors fit his point, that the individual is part of the universe, and so he would use that quote in exactly the way that the answer choice describes. C is the correct answer.
(D) misses the scope of the content provided in the paragraph. Whitman may well be concerned with the well-being of all, but the author is specifically dealing with the human-universe dynamic in this paragraph, so the correct answer must be consistent with that.
(E) similarly misses the scope of the author’s intent. He is not concerned with the way the authors write, but he is trying to demonstrate that they write about a common philosophy.
On the whole, you should use this example to highlight the importance of understanding the author’s intent when you read, as these Function questions will test that understanding directly. Furthermore, even if the answer choice comes down to content (like choice D, in a way, does), your focus on those terms that signal author intent will show you where to go to check the content. More importantly, as you will note with choice A, the most popular trap answers will try to bait you to think locally while missing the author’s intent.
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