So, while reading each sentence we need to find relationship of the current sentence to other sentences is the “Identifying Function Approach”. In Greg’s season 3 session 4, I see that Greg is going each sentence by sentence and identifying its function. My doubt is like do we not want to read next sentence of current sentence so as to know its relationship and function? is this approach wrong? I am unable to find function sometimes unless I read next sentence and see the relationship. Am I doing this approach wrong?
Function is usually accentuated by one word. Like:
- Sentences that sound like the author is attempting to pontificate an idea are often assertions.
- Examples would suggest a structured passage where the author explains or corroborates an assertion/claim.
- Words like does, do, It is true, etc… signify a concession ( A concession is given by an author to qualify his/her statement that he/she would make after the concession, it basically makes the statement less absolute, like: The pizza does taste good, but its costly.
- Statements after a concession often (not always) end up being the main idea. Greg describes this as the “hammer”. Words like however, but… (Look at the pizza example)
So to answer your question, yeah they are connected. Don’t look at the sentence individually, but how it fits in with the entire para. Like what significance does it bear with the para as a whole.
So no I don’t think its wrong at all. Your ability to spot a sentence’s function would come with experience. How you could accelerate this process is by keeping in minds specific words that accentuate the function. Like the ones mentioned above.
See the episode where he talks about only a few words mattering in the entire paragraph. He highlights like 5-6 words in a 200 word paragraph to show that only they would give 60-70% of the understanding of the passage, maybe even more.
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Thanks, this was really helpful