Any tips on attitude questions in RC?

Reissie73

Hey guys, I noticed I often have trouble deciphering the tones of the author or different groups in the texts, and have no idea how to improve this. Is it just exposure? Does anyone have tips to improve this? My RC SUCKS sometimes and it’s very discouraging.

_oshun1_

My only tip is to hone in on connotation and descriptive terms in the passage. Does the author say, "the scientists' claim has some implications..." - neutral, or does the author say "the scientists' claim has some compelling implications..." - positive. Once you figure out if it's a negative or positive or neutral attitude, you'll probably be down to 2 ACs. Just really focus on what exactly the ACs are saying. Maybe one AC says he feels hopeful about the contributions to the future, another might say he hesitantly supports the claim. You're like duh he has hopeful views, the whole passage is about the scientists and how their great work will help society. Hesitant makes it sound like he doesnt totally love their claim. Does the author ever mention any remotely negative aspect of the scientists' claim? Does the author maybe say "this could possibly have a positive effect on the future of XYZ studies...if America has significant gains in technology and our XYZ funds increase..." -- so this isnt 100% support. He sees that their claim might never be attainable.

Even just noting the difference between could and will and should is important. If the author believes that whatever he's talking about could lead to this...then he doesnt 100% support what he's describing. If he says it will lead to this...and he has no asides at all, then he does 100% support. If he says it should lead to this...then maybe his view is more neutral, he's aware it has some good aspects, he hopes it'll work out, but he's not really sure.

I think keeping a list of tone words would be useful. Some of the right ACs are super weird and I've never heard anyone speak like that irl.

Adding this in - I just did an RC passage and I circled the word "impressive" and "ably" and "unfortunately." Just from those words you know the author likes what he's writing about, but there's a downside.

studyingandrestudying

Maybe go into the read-through expecting a good chance of seeing this question and have a ballpark idea before you go into the questions. Also, the webinar on RC Question Types is good.