Reading a Sentence

The most effective way to read a tough sentence is from the inside out. This is a simple
procedure, one that requires a command of a small, simple and very boring academic skill set:
Sentence structure!
Reading a sentence from the inside out is an easy and perfectible science. I call it a science
because when we understand the basic rules and terms of sentence structure, we can use easily
fixed, visible boundaries to identify where one thought in a sentence begins/ends, and where
another thought begins/ends.
And this is the whole point! The reason we get lost in GRE/GMAT sentences is because we
cannot perceive the basic thoughts being expressed. The reason why this happens is because the
sentences are so long, have so many commas, use so many big words and intertwine so many
thoughtsyeah, that pretty much explains it, huh?
So, if an endless string of tangled thoughts is the problem, I say our solution ought to focus on
untangling the thoughts, examining each thought separately, and then placing the thoughts
together in the right order.
Thats three actions we just identified as the solution to reading tough GRE/GMAT sentences:
Untangle the thoughts, examine each individual thought, and place together the individual
thoughts in the proper sequence.
Here is how:
Catch the main point first and THEN catch all the other points.
The main point is the independent clause.
The other points are dependent clauses.
Two ways to identify independent clause (as opposed to a dependent clause): punctuation and the
complete thought
To use punctuation to ID an independent clause:
Start at the beginning of sentence or another punctuation mark and read through to the next
punctuation mark.
If you have a Subject/Verb and a complete thought, then the clause is an independent clause.
Sometimes, the independent clause gets 'interrupted' and then continues after the interruption.
This happens when the author decides to modify something that has just been said.
In this case, modify means to add to. Sometimes it is important to provide details about a
particular part of a thought. An example of this would be the subject of a sentence. If the

sentence itself, what the subject is doing, is the complete thought, then the subject would be part
of that thought. And so would the verb. And so would other nouns and verbs contained in that
thought, such as the ones contained in prepositional phrases. Modifiers are usually unessential,
but helpful information. These are often times the dependent clauses that we are trying to
separate from the independent clausefor the sake of clarity.
Modifiers must be located directly next to the words and phrases they modify. So, if we want to
modify a word that or phrase while we in the course of typing our complete thought, we must
literally interrupt our complete thought (with a comma), and then interject the modifier, and
finally, re-join our previously initiated complete thought.
The interruption will be contained in commas and will explain a part of the main idea expressed
in the IC.
The IC will never be split up (by commas) into CONSECUTIVE parts of the sentences.
So, to look for an IC, look for the commas and determine which parts of the sentence make up
the complete thought/main idea.
A 'part' means from Capital letter to punctuation or from punctuation to punctuation
To isolate the main idea of a single clause- ID the Subject and the Verb because this tells you
what the person (or thing) in the sentence is doing
Sometimes, the best way to do this is to ID and then eliminate (temporarily) most or all of the
prepositional phrases.
How do we ID the prep. phrases?
Look for the prepositions!
The whole idea behind both of these skills is to break down the sentence or a part of the sentence
into a collection of individual thoughts/facts that can then be re-'stacked'
Reading a basic Paragraph or Passage
To read a paper (or a paragraph), follow the three basic parts: Intro, body, conclusion.
Intro: Engage the reader in the topic and the paper itself.
Sets out the thesis statement: what the paper will prove, argue or explain
How to spot the thesis: Look for the key words.
Such as: 'This paper will...(argue, explain, examine, discuss).
In academic articles, the first section is usually the intro.

After that, we get into the body of the paper.

The body proves (or explains or argues) the thesis statement.
It does this with evidence and analysis
Evidence is the proof of the thesis and analysis is an explanation of how the evidence actually
proves the thesis
This process is repeated then for all parts of the thesis or for all of the different theses
Conclusion states how the thesis was proved