Lesson: Reading Comprehension Basic - 03t01

Is That A Fact? . . . Or An Opinion?

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What's more important in a Reading Comp passage?

a fact

an opinion

Facts, or the evidence that an author uses to support his/her purpose, are less important because the questions rarely focus on them. Most details go untested, and when you are asked about a specific fact, it's often easy to locate.

The most important sentences in any passage are those in which the author's voice is heard. These sentences clue you in to the author's purpose in writing the passage, as well as his or her specific main idea. And they also shed light on the direction in which the text is moving. They provide, in other words, a map that the critical reader can use to organize his/her thoughts about the text.

Even more important, most of the questions concern the author - they will ask about his/her purpose, main idea, beliefs, reason for including a detail, and so forth. The point payoff comes not in digesting facts, but in understanding what the author is thinking and doing in the text, which means that authorial opinion is what you want to look for.

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