What are rhetorical synthesis questions? They're the SAT questions in the Reading and Writing section that provide you with a set of fictitious student notes and ask you to choose a response that use the information the notes to meet a certain goal. At first glance, they may seem daunting. After all, they're long. There's a lot of text to get through, right? Or is there?
You may be surprised to discover that not only are rhetorical synthesis questions easier than they look, they also require a lot less reading than you might suppose. Check out the rhetorical synthesis question below, but instead of reading all of the bullet points in the student notes, go straight to the actual question itself.
While conducting research for an upcoming assignment, a student took the notes shown below:
- Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary painter and performance artist.
- Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, and other places worldwide.
- A large number of her works feature polka dots.
- Her installation I’m Here, but Nothing (2000-2008) was made up of a room that contained a few furnishings and had walls covered with hundreds of glowing polka dots.
- Her floating work Guidepost to the New Space (2015) featured a serious of rounded, bright red “humps” covered in white polka dots.
1. The student’s aim is to highlight the similarity in the two works. Which of the following best uses the information provided in the notes to accomplish this goal?
A) I’m Here, but Nothing incorporates polka dots on the walls of a room; Guidepost to the New Space, on the other hand, uses polka dots on rounded shapes.
B) Similar to many of Kusama’s other works, both I’m Here, but Nothing and Guidepost to the New Space include polka dots; I’m Here, but Nothing incorporates them on walls, and Guidepost to the New Space incorporates them on rounded “humps.”
C) Kusama’s work, which frequently makes use of polka dots, has been exhibited in many locations worldwide.
D) Kusama exhibited I’m Here, but Nothing from 2000-2008 and Guidepost to the New Space in 2015.
So, how should you approach these questions?
Start by focusing on the goal provided in the question prompt, and skip the bullet points. Here, notice that you’re asked to choose the answer that highlights a similarity between two works, so check to see whether each answer does this. If an answer doesn't mention a similarity, eliminate it.
Note that while choice A mentions two works that incorporate polka dots, it uses the phrase “on the other hand”—a phrase used to show a contrast rather than a similarity—to link the content of the two works. Therefore you can eliminate choice A.
Choice B discusses two works that both works use polka dots, thus highlighting a similarity, so keep choice B.
Note that choice C doesn’t highlight a similarity between the two works, and therefore is not the correct answer. If you did read the bullet points, you might find this choice tempting because it contains a true statement, as the notes do indicate that Kusama’s work has been displayed worldwide. However, the answer choice doesn’t fulfill the goal provided in the question itself, so it's incorrect. You can see, then, that reading the bullet points doesn't always help!
Choice D simply discusses when two works were exhibited but does not discuss a similarity between them, so you can eliminate this choice, too. If you read the bullet points you'll note that choice D also contains a true statement, but since it doesn’t indicate how the two works are similar, it's incorrect.
The correct answer is choice B, because it's the only answer that meets the criteria given in the question. Actually reading the student notes wasn't necessary here!
As you work these questions, just remember to search for the answer that most literally accomplishes the goal provided, and you’ll find that only one answer works!
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