Rhetorical Purpose Questions

Rhetorical Purpose Questions

TOEFL - Prep

What Are Rhetorical Purpose Questions?

Rhetorical Purpose questions ask you to identify the purpose of a statement or paragraph in relation to the rest of the passage. These types of questions require you to understand why an author has presented a piece of information in a particular place or manner. You may be asked to identify how one paragraph relates to another, or why the author quotes a certain person or mentions a particular piece of information.

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The author discusses X in paragraph 2 in order to . . .

How to Recognize Rhetorical Purpose Questions

Model question

Why does the author mention X?

Rhetorical Purpose questions are typically worded in the following ways

Why does the author compare X to Y?

Tips for Rhetorical Purpose Questions

• Know the definitions of words or phrases that are often used to describe different kinds of rhetorical purposes, such as “to illustrate,” “to explain,” “to contrast,” “to refute,” “to note,” and “to criticize.”
• Rhetorical Purpose questions usually focus on the logical links between sentences and paragraphs rather than the overall organization of the passage.

Practice

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