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VirginiaEnglish Language

Reading Literary Texts

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you state the theme of a literary text as a full idea about life rather than a one-word topic, and how do you find the evidence in the passage that proves it?

Analyzing theme and central idea in literary texts: stating a theme as a complete sentence about life or human nature rather than a topic word, distinguishing theme from subject and from a moral, and tracing how a writer develops a theme through plot, character, and detail across an EOC Reading literary passage.
How to analyze theme on a Virginia EOC Reading literary passage: stating theme as a full sentence about life, not a one-word topic, telling theme apart from subject and from a moral, and tracing how plot, character, and detail develop it. Theme is tested with multiple choice, hot text, and supporting-evidence items.
9 min answer →

How do you infer a character's traits and motivations from what they say and do, and how does the narrator's point of view shape what you can know?

Character, motivation, and point of view: inferring traits and motivations from a character's words, actions, thoughts, and others' reactions (indirect characterization), tracking how a character changes, and identifying the narrative point of view (first person, third limited, third omniscient) and how it shapes the reader's access to a Virginia EOC Reading literary passage.
How to analyze character and point of view on a Virginia EOC Reading literary passage: inferring traits and motivation from behavior (indirect characterization), tracking change, and identifying first-person, third-limited, and third-omniscient narration and its effect. Tested with multiple choice, hot text, and evidence items.
9 min answer →

How do you identify figurative language and literary devices and, more importantly, explain the effect each one creates in a passage?

Figurative language and literary devices: identifying metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, and irony, and explaining the effect each device creates (not just naming it), across literary passages and poems on the Virginia EOC Reading test.
How to analyze figurative language on the Virginia EOC Reading test: identifying metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, and irony, and explaining the effect of each rather than just naming it. Tested with multiple choice, hot text, and effect items across prose and poetry.
9 min answer →

How do you read a plot arc, identify the central conflict, and explain why a writer's structural choices, such as flashback or foreshadowing, create their effects?

Plot, conflict, and structure in fiction: identifying the stages of a plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), naming the central conflict and its type, and explaining the effect of structural choices such as flashback, foreshadowing, and a nonlinear opening on a Virginia EOC Reading literary passage.
How to analyze plot and structure on a Virginia EOC Reading literary passage: the plot stages, the central conflict and its type, and the effect of structural choices such as flashback and foreshadowing. The EOC tests these with multiple choice, drag-and-drop sequencing, and effect questions.
9 min answer →

How do you paraphrase a poem to fix its literal sense, then read its form, sound, and figurative language to reach its meaning and tone?

Reading poetry on the SOL: paraphrasing a poem to establish its literal sense, reading form and sound (stanza, line breaks, rhyme, rhythm, repetition, a refrain) and connecting them to meaning, and interpreting figurative language and tone on a Virginia EOC Reading poetry selection.
How to read poetry on a Virginia EOC Reading selection: paraphrasing to fix the literal sense, reading form and sound (line breaks, rhyme, rhythm, repetition, refrain), and interpreting figurative language and tone. The EOC tests poetry with multiple choice, hot text, and meaning items.
9 min answer →