Humanities Passages · Strategy summary

Humanities Passages: strategy summary

  1. Find the subject and the claim. The claim is built from judgment words (I think, I would argue, proper, rarer), not from description.
  2. Name the tone in your own words first, then match it. Mixed tones (fond but amused, appreciative but critical) are common.
  3. Reject tone words that are too strong, the opposite, or unsupported: calm essays are rarely bitter, scornful, or ecstatic.
  4. Expect an anecdote, a widening, a turn (But, Yet), the idea, and a closing reflection; answer function questions with a job verb.
  5. Keep three stages apart in a changed-mind essay: then (I used to), the cause (what changed my mind), and now (I no longer, Now).
  6. At pace: read for a paragraph map in about three minutes, then locate each answer before you read the choices.