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North CarolinaEnglish Language

Reading Informational Texts

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you read information presented in graphics and text features, and how do you integrate that information with the words of a passage?

Analyzing graphics and text features in informational texts: reading charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, headings, captions, and other features, integrating their information with the prose, and evaluating how a visual or feature supports or extends the central idea on an unseen NC English II EOC informational passage.
How to read graphics and text features on an NC English II EOC informational passage: interpreting charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, headings, and captions, integrating that information with the prose, and evaluating how a visual supports the central idea. The EOC tests integrating information across formats.
9 min answer →

How do you identify an author's purpose and point of view in an informational text, and how do word choice and what is included reveal that perspective?

Author's purpose and perspective in informational texts: identifying whether the author writes to inform, persuade, or describe, determining the author's point of view or perspective on the topic, and reading how word choice, tone, and selection of detail reveal that perspective on an unseen NC English II EOC informational passage.
How to read an author's purpose and perspective on an NC English II EOC informational passage: telling apart writing to inform, persuade, or describe, determining the author's point of view, and seeing how word choice and selection of detail reveal it. The EOC asks you to ground purpose and perspective in the text.
10 min answer →

How do you state the central idea of an informational text as a full sentence, and how do you tell it apart from a supporting detail or the topic?

Central ideas in informational texts: stating the central idea as a full sentence rather than a topic word, distinguishing a central idea from supporting details, tracing how a central idea develops across a passage, and writing an objective summary on an unseen NC English II EOC informational passage.
How to find a central idea on an NC English II EOC informational passage: stating it as a full sentence rather than a topic word, telling it apart from supporting details, tracing how it develops, and writing an objective summary. Informational reading is the largest category on the test.
10 min answer →

How do you compare two paired texts on the same topic, weighing how their ideas, evidence, and approaches agree or differ?

Comparing paired texts: analyzing how two texts on the same topic or theme relate, comparing their central ideas, evidence, structure, and the authors' purposes or perspectives, and synthesizing across both in multiple-choice, technology-enhanced, and constructed-response items on the NC English II EOC.
How to compare paired texts on an NC English II EOC: analyzing how two texts on the same topic relate, comparing their central ideas, evidence, structure, and the authors' purposes, and synthesizing across both. Paired-text items test whether you can hold two texts in mind and weigh how they agree or differ.
10 min answer →

How do you make a logical inference from a text and then cite the strongest evidence for it, especially in evidence-based item types?

Text evidence and inference: making a logical inference from what a text states and implies, distinguishing a supported inference from a guess, and citing the strongest, most relevant evidence (including in two-part evidence-based items) on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.
How to make inferences and cite evidence on an NC English II EOC passage: drawing a logical inference from what the text states and implies, telling a supported inference from a guess, and choosing the strongest evidence, including in two-part evidence-based items. Evidence is the backbone of the whole test.
10 min answer →

How do you identify the way an informational text is organized, and how do you explain why that structure serves the author's purpose?

Text structure and organization in informational texts: recognizing common patterns (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological or sequential, description, and order of importance), explaining how a paragraph or section fits the whole, and reading why an author chose a structure on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.
How to analyze text structure on an NC English II EOC informational passage: recognizing cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological, and order-of-importance patterns, and explaining how a part fits the whole and why the author chose that structure. Structure questions reward explaining purpose.
10 min answer →