Tackling the writing strategies section

1. Tackling the writing strategies section 14 Days Until CAHSEE!!! 15 February 2011

2. Essay revision questions • Essay Revision Questions are based on the text of brief rough drafts, and they appear in two basic forms: • Essay Revision Question Type #1: Sentence Revision Questions • Example: What is the BEST way to state the action in sentence 2? • These questions deal with revising a part of the passage based on Grammar and Structure Rules • For most of these, you don’t need to read the passage. • Essay Revision Question Type #2: Reading Passage Questions • Example: Which sentence is NOT related to the main idea of Paragraph 2? • These questions deal with figuring out what a specific part of the passage says. • For most of these, you only need to read parts of the passage.

3. Practice Passage #1: Shower of light • Since these are rough drafts and may have errors, the title and first/last paragraphs may not be as helpful to us. • We should, however, always start by reading the questions (not the answers). • Is Question #1 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question? • Is Question #2 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question? • Is Question #3 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question? • Is Question #4 a Sentence Revision question or a Reading Passage question? • Which kind of question do you think we should tackle first?

4. Shower of light: question #1 • Question #1 is a Sentence Revision question. How can you tell? • The question is asking you to revise a sentence from the passage based on the rules of grammar and structure • You don’t need to read the passage to deal with it • This question deals with Passive Voice • Passive voice is using verbs with “to be” forms (like “is” or “was”) to make it sound like the thing doing the action is having the action done to it: “The fool was pitied by me.” • Active voice is using verbs to make the thing doing the action actually do it: “I pity the fool!” • Look for answer choices that express actions with “to be” verbs. Eliminate them. • The remaining answer is the correct choice.

5. Shower of light: question #2 • Question #2 is a Sentence Revision question. How can you tell? • The question is asking you to revise an underlined part of a sentence from the passage based on the rules of grammar and structure • You don’t need to read the passage to deal with it • This question deals with Wordiness and Passive Voice • Wordiness is using more words than necessary to say something • In answer choice “A,” repeating the word “really” doesn’t add anything to what’s being said except more words • Redundancy is a wordiness problem in which unnecessary words say the exact same thing as some other words in the sentence • In answer choice “B,” the words “went away” say what the word “disappeared” already said • Look at the last two answer choices. Which one can be eliminated for using passive voice? • The remaining answer is the correct choice.

6. Shower of light: Question #3 • This is a Reading Passage question. How can you tell? • The question is asking you to pick a word that better expresses a certain meaning based on the meanings of words in the passage • Reading the part of the passage surrounding the underlined words can help you with answering the question • This question deals with Connotation • This question is basically asking you to figure out the meaning of the underlined words and choose the answer choice with the most similar meaning. • Start with the underlined words. What possible meanings of “double time” come to mind? • Look at the sentence from the passage. What is it talking about? How does that affect the possible meaning of “double time”? • Write down meanings for each of the answer choice words. • Eliminate answers that don’t work with “double time.” • The remaining answer is the correct choice.

7. Shower of light: question #4 • This is a Reading Passage question. How can you tell? • The question is asking about the “main idea” of a part of the passage. • You can’t answer the question without reading part of the passage. • This question deals with Main Idea • Read paragraph 2. Keep an eye out for any sentences that seem weird. • What is the main idea of paragraph 2? • Do any of the answer choices clearly not go with the main idea of the paragraph? • If you’re unsure, try to find two answer choices that definitely go together. Then look at the other two sentences. Which one is more like the first two? • The remaining answer is the correct choice.

8. Practice Passage #2: killer asteroids • Look at questions 5-7. Are they Sentence Revision questions or Reading Passage questions? • Question #5 is a Sentence Revision question that deals with Parallelism. • Parallelism is a rule that says words in a sentence that go together must be in the same form. • Look at the sentence from the passage where the underlined phrase is. Which words from the sentence do the underlined words go with? • Many species before us have enjoyed great success only to fall victim to changes in climate, competing of other species, or other factors beyond their control. • Which answer choice is in a form most like the other two parts? • Questions #6 and #7 are Connotation questions • Use the steps that we used in the last passage to answer these questions (figure out what the word in the sentence means; figure out what the words in the answer choices mean; see which answer choice matches the meaning in the sentence)

9. Practice Passage #3: the abominable snowman • Look at questions 8 and 9. Are they Sentence Revision questions or Reading Passage questions? • Question #8 is a Connotation question • Use the steps that we used in the last two passages to answer this question (figure out what “thing” in the sentence is referring to; figure out what the answer choices mean; see which answer choice matches the meaning in the sentence) • Question #9 is a Reading Passage question that deals with Details. • How can you tell? • The question is asking about “ideas,” “details,” and “evidence” contained in the passage. • Finding specific information in the passage is important for answering the question. • Since CAHSEE essay revision passages are so short, “What’s It Say?”-type detail questions are pretty straightforward . . . the four answer choices contain 1 true statement and 3 false statements. • For each answer choice, pick a key word (such as “imaginations” for answer choice “B”) that will help you find the part of the passage that talks about it. • Find the part of the passage that talks about each answer choice. • Which answer choice statement is supported by the passage?