Reading Comprehension and Written Communication
Reading Comprehension and Written Communication
Reading Comprehension asks you to find the controlling idea in dense official prose - a policy memo, statute excerpt, or incident narrative - and to separate what the text states from what you assume. Written Communication asks whether you can produce a factual sentence that would survive cross-examination.
Core rules and concepts
- Identify the question type first. Main idea, stated detail, inference, vocabulary-in-context, purpose, and application each have a different standard. A detail answer must appear in the text; an inference must be logically compelled, not merely plausible.
- Modifier placement. A descriptive phrase must sit beside the noun it describes.
- Pronoun reference. One pronoun, one clear antecedent - "the trooper told the operator that he..." is ambiguous.
- Parallel structure. "Reporting, interviewing, and securing evidence," not "reporting, to interview, and evidence secured."
- Report style. Chronological order, times, places, names; observations kept apart from conclusions. "I observed slurred speech and bloodshot eyes" beats "the operator was intoxicated."
Worked example
Sentence: "While patrolling Route 128, the vehicle's taillight was observed to be out."
Reasoning: the opening phrase must describe whoever is patrolling, but the main clause subject is "the vehicle's taillight" - a dangling modifier. It also hides the observer, which a report must never do. Revision: "While patrolling Route 128, I observed that the taillight of the black sedan was out." The actor is named, the modifier is attached to "I," and an identifying detail is added.
Traps
- Choosing a restatement of the first sentence instead of the passage's overall point.
- "Fixing" a sentence that is already grammatically correct.
- Padding: "proceeded to," "in order to," and "at which time" blur rather than clarify facts.