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Developed by Shirley Shultz Myers and Carie Palmer
for the Gallaudet University English Department
Below are patterns for each of the six kinds of reading questions. Each pattern includes a description, the typical phrases or language we see in text or on tests, and strategies to help identify the kind you are looking at.
Comprehension means understanding or mentally grasping the meaning of something. The answer to a comprehension question usually is something you can point to in the paragraph or passage.
Most comprehension questions look like this:
Strategies for answering comprehension questions:
Look for the word, phrase, or sentence(s) that answer the question directly.
Be aware that some questions are just another way of saying something in the paragraph or passage.
Detail questions specify smaller chunks of information than comprehension questions. The answers deal with specific, small items in the paragraph or passage such as a number, a date, or a name.
Most detail questions look like this:
Strategies for answering detail questions:
Look for answers in the paragraph or passage that are limited to only one or a few words, a date, some numbers and other very specific items.
Following directions is a particular kind of comprehension. You are asked to understand how to answer a question, not to answer the question itself. For example, the directions could tell you to underline the subject once, underline the verb twice, and put parenthesis around the prepositional phrases. If you do not read the directions, you would (1) not know what to do with the paper or (2) not know how to write the answers the correct way.
Most questions that require following directions look like this:
Strategies for answering following directions questions:
Do not worry if the answer contains the correct information. Worry about whether the answer is written in the correct way, or worry about how the question is answered. For example, the directions might tell you to underline, but you drew a circle around the correct answer. Therefore, you answered the question itself correctly, but wrote your answer in the wrong way or how you answered was wrong.
The main idea covers most of what a paragraph or passage is about; it may answer who, what, where, when, why, or how. It includes a topic and something specific about that topic. or example, a topic might be the Civil War. A main idea about the Civil War might be: The two most important causes of the Civil War were disagreements slavery and state rights.
Most main idea questions look like this:
Strategies for answering main idea questions:
In the answers, look for one or two sentences that are mini-summaries of the whole paragraph or passage.
Refer to SSS Main Ideas Guide
Make sure your choice is not too narrow. In other words, make sure your choice for a main idea cannot be answered by only one sentence of the paragraph or passage. Most of the sentences must be about this/these reason(s), place(s), time(s), person(s), (how) process(es), or thing(s).
Make sure your choice for the main idea is not too broad. Can your choice include more things not in the paragraph or passage? If it can, then it is not specific enough.
In contrast to facts or information stated directly in the paragraph or passage, inferences are decisions, conclusions or judgments the reader makes from information in the paragraph or passage. The information is like a hint, and the inferred ideas are not stated directly. The reader must reason or think about her answer.
Most inference questions look like this:
Strategies for answering inference questions:
Refer to SSS Drawing Conclusions Guide;
Look for evidence for your inference in the reading passage.
Sequence shows the chronological order of events - what happened first, second, and sometimes more. Note that the sequence is not the same as the order of events presented in the paragraph or passage. For example, the passage could start talking about what happened last, and then jump back to the beginning.
A sequencing question often looks like this:
Strategies for answering sequence questions:
Write the rule* for after/after order:
Example: Randy walked the dog before he went to work.
Note that one sentence may include more than two events; it could use both before and after in one sentence. These sentences are a little trickier.
Example: Randy walked the dog before he went to work and
after he took out the trash.
Make a list of all the events in the passage or paragraph to help you answer the question(s).