Lesson: Reading Comprehension Basic - 14

Road mapping The Passage

By the middle to end of the passage, your task shifts slightly to one of riding out the author's train of thought. Is the author providing more support? Expanding on previous examples or themes? Outlining a further consequence of her argument? Are the author's purpose and main idea emerging only now? Your job is to assimilate the remaining text into the flow of the passage - don't make the mistake of seeing this later stuff as something brand new; it has to relate to what's come before!

Here's where the concept of making a passage Road map comes into play. This is a way to keep track of the passage's structure (mentally or on paper) while not losing sight of the major elements (topic, scope, purpose, main idea, tone, etc.) that you mastered earlier.

In reality, this Road map should be in the making from the beginning, but it's here, late in your attack on the passage, that it becomes particularly important: It keeps you on track and helps you to assimilate the passage into a coherent whole.