Green2k1 wrote:
Would appreciate if anyone can explain in detail. How to identify the primary purpose of the passage? Whether author has put forth his/her views /ideas to examine / to criticize / to explain etc.?
What are the key marker, one should look for to identify authors views /tone /primary purpose in the following cases:
1. Examine
2. Explain
3. Discuss / Describe
4. Illustrate
5. Demonstrate
6. Criticize
7. Elucidate
For example if the author is condemning /cursing the main idea/point of the passage. The purpose may be to criticize.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Green2k1The
tone of the author could be 3 types:
1/ positive
2/ negative
3/ neutral
if the author put negative tone it is something like
Criticize.
If any answer option (in primary purpose question) put the word '
Illustrate' then it surely explain with
Example.
Some more info about
main point and
primary purpose question:
The main point of the passage: The RC questions SOMETMES ask you a broad question such as “Main point of the author’s argument”
The main point of the passage is the central idea, or ultimate conclusion, that the author is attempting to prove.
Although in the majority of the passages, the main point is stated in the first paragraph, it is NOT always the case that the main point appears in the first or second sentence.
The main point of MANY passages has appeared in the final sentence of the first paragraph or in the first sentence of the second paragraph, or, at times, in the last paragraph.
The Primary Purpose of the Passage: The primary purpose is the author’s central reason for writing the passage.
Primary Purpose is a concept closely related to Main Point.
If Main Point questions require the “WHAT” of the passage (“what’s the point? What is the author driving at?”), then Primary Purpose questions require you to consider the “WHY.” Why did the author want to write the material in question? What was the author attempting to accomplish by writing the passage?
NOTE: The answers to each primary purpose question tend to begin with a VERB (Examine, Explain, Discuss / Describe, Illustrate, Demonstrate, Criticize, Elucidate, etc.,) , so understanding the author’s motivation is vital; was the author attempting to describe a work of fiction? …to explain a process? ...to present a theory? …perhaps to defend a position?
Note: The difference (primary purpose and main point) in focus between the two different question types as you attempt to form a prephrase for each before considering the answer choice.
The main point question requires us to SUMMARIZE what the author SAID; the main purpose (primary purpose) question asks us to DESCRIBE what the author DID. The correct answer choice need NOT be overly specific. Any answer choice (in primary purpose question) that cannot be proven with the information contained in the passage will be incorrect.
If the activities (in an answer choice) are NOT done by author, then it can’t be the correct choice for the primary purpose question!
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22 Feb 2021, 08:56
