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.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
Jump to a section
What this skill is asking
Informational texts often carry meaning in more than words, and the NC English II EOC asks you to read that too. Graphics are visuals such as charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, maps, and timelines; text features are elements such as headings, subheadings, captions, bold terms, sidebars, and pull quotes. Questions ask you to read information from a graphic, to explain how a feature helps the reader, and, crucially, to integrate visual and verbal information, combining what the graph shows with what the prose says. The skill students lose marks on is reading the words and ignoring the visual, or misreading a chart's axes and labels. This page covers reading graphics accurately, the purpose of common text features, and integrating across formats. The transferable skill is treating a passage as a package of words and visuals that work together, which is the NCSCOS standard on integrating content in different formats.
Reading a graphic accurately
The discipline is to read the labels before the shape. A line that rises steeply might look dramatic, but the axis might cover a tiny range, or the units might be different from what you assumed. Slow down on the title, the axes, and the key, and only then read the trend or value the question asks about. A graphic is precise information; treat it with the same care you give a sentence.
What text features do
Features are not decoration; they are part of how an author organizes and stresses information. When a question asks why an author included a heading, a caption, or a bolded term, name the job it does. A caption that gives a statistic is doing more than labeling a picture; it is adding evidence. Reading features as purposeful, like structure and word choice, leads to the analytical answers the standards reward.
Integrating words and visuals
Try this
Q1. What should you check before drawing a conclusion from a graph? [Recall]
- Cue. The title (what it shows), the axis labels and units (what each axis measures), and the key or legend (what symbols or colors mean). Reading the labels first prevents misreading the trend or value.
Q2. A passage claims a city's air quality improved, and a line graph shows pollution levels falling over five years. Explain how the graph helps the reader. [Short explanation]
- Cue. The graph provides the data behind the prose claim, showing the actual decline in pollution year by year. Integrating it with the text confirms and quantifies the improvement the words describe, supporting the central idea with evidence in a second format.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of NCDPI exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
NC English II EOC (informational)1 marksA passage argues that recycling rose after a new program, and a bar graph shows recycling tonnage by year. How does the graph most help the reader? (1) It replaces the need to read the passage. (2) It provides data that supports the passage's claim about rising recycling. (3) It contradicts the passage. (4) It is purely decorative.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). A graph integrated with prose usually provides evidence the words describe, here the year-by-year tonnage that backs the claim recycling rose. Reading the visual together with the text confirms and quantifies the argument.
Why not the others: (1) misstates how visuals and text work together, not as substitutes; (3) assumes a contradiction the passage does not set up; (4) dismisses data that clearly supports the point.
NC English II EOC (features)1 marksAn informational passage uses bold headings before each section. How do these headings most help the reader? (1) They make the passage longer. (2) They signal the topic of each section, helping the reader locate information and follow the structure. (3) They are required by law. (4) They hide the central idea.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). Headings label sections, so they help a reader preview content, locate specific information, and follow the text's organization. They are a navigational text feature that supports comprehension.
Why not the others: (1) treats a useful feature as filler; (3) is irrelevant; (4) is the opposite, since headings reveal structure rather than hide the idea.
Related dot points
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Evaluating reasoning and evidence: judging whether the reasoning in an argument is valid and whether the evidence is relevant, sufficient, and credible, recognizing common logical fallacies (such as hasty generalization, false cause, and either-or), and assessing how well evidence supports a claim on an unseen NC English II EOC passage.
How to evaluate reasoning and evidence on an NC English II EOC passage: judging whether reasoning is valid and evidence is relevant, sufficient, and credible, and spotting common fallacies like hasty generalization and false cause. The EOC asks you to assess an argument, not just summarize it.
- 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.
Sources & how we know this
- EOC English II Test Specifications — NCDPI (2024)
- English Language Arts Standard Course of Study — NCDPI (2024)