GRE General

Sub Topics

Reading Comprehension - How to Infer Intended Meaning Get The Gist of an Essay Improve And Reading Comprehension Reading Comprehension - How to Answer Questions About Literature Reading Comprehension - Reading Strategies Using Visualization What Are Connotation And Denotation?Understanding Tone And Mood in a Reading Passage Structure in Writing And How Does it Affect Meaning?Close Reading vs Big Picture Reading How to Use Text to Guide Your Interpretation

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GRE General: Reading Comprehension - How to Analyze a Literary Passage
Structure in Writing And How Does it Affect Meaning?

In this video lesson, we will discuss the structure in literature Passage on Reading Comprehension. From there, we will look at the different ways to structure fiction and how it affects the meaning.

Structure in Writing And How Does it Affect Meaning?

For full lecture refer to the video

What is in a Story?

Have you ever drawn a picture? Or learned a new dance? When you draw a picture, you start first with the outline of the image. From there, you would add darker lines, more colors, and create a finished piece. When you learn a new dance, you first learn the small steps, and then you begin to add more and finish them to create a complete dance.

However, all of these elements really rely on one single strong element: the structure of the writing. What is the structure? The structure is how the story is organized. It is the framework of the story. You can think of structure as the outline of the story or the map of its construction.

When an author writes a story, he or she begins with the framework of the story.

Plot is the main events of the story. When developing the structure of the story, an author would want to tell the events in some sort of order. This could be the beginning, the middle, or even through flashbacks.

Setting is the time and place where the story occurs. Characters are the people in the story. Finally, the theme is the main message, the central idea, of the story.

When an author develops a story, the structure is what holds all of these ideas together.

Most short stories follow a narrative structure. In a narrative structure, we see a plot introduced, complications or a crisis, a turning point, and a resolution.

How Does Structure Affect Meaning?

In order to find the meaning in writing, you should look for the theme. The theme is created through the structure. How the author organizes his or her work will affect how we interpret it. Because all elements relate to the structure, we should spend time studying the plot, how ideas are organized, how characters are introduced, what changes, and what is resolved in the story.