Reading comprehension of non-literary/informative texts
Reading comprehension of non-literary/informative texts
Non-literary texts include articles, reports, essays, instructions, advertisements, and infographics. You must understand main idea, supporting details, author's purpose, audience, tone, text structure (cause-effect, compare-contrast, problem-solution, chronological), and fact vs opinion. Also pay attention to headings, captions, bullet points, and visual elements if described.
Traps: Questions may ask for the primary purpose but include options that are true yet secondary. Another trap is inference questions where the answer is not directly stated but must be logically concluded. Be careful with opinion words (e.g., "best", "should", "unfortunately") and factual claims that can be verified. Also, watch for bias or emotional language in persuasive texts.
A rule of thumb: skim the text for the topic sentence of each paragraph and the conclusion. Then read the questions and locate the relevant paragraph. For fact vs opinion, ask: Can this be proven true or false by evidence? If yes, it's a fact; if it expresses a judgment, it's an opinion.
Worked example: Text: "Many studies show that reading daily improves vocabulary. Therefore, schools should allocate more time for independent reading." Question: Which sentence is an opinion? The first sentence reports studies (fact), the second says "should allocate" (opinion/recommendation). So the answer is the second sentence.