Reading and Writing Plays

You know how a trailer works. In ninety seconds you learn the genre, the main character, and what the story is about, without memorizing a single frame. Read every passage that way on your first pass.

1. Read once at trailer speed. Ask: who or what is this about, and what is the writer's point?
2. Do not memorize details. The passage stays on screen the whole time. You can always go back to the exact scene.
3. Then read the question and return to the lines it points at.

When to run it: every single passage, every single time.

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A film editor never says "I think that scene exists." They scrub to the exact frame. Do the same: the right answer is always supported by words that actually appear in the passage.

1. Before you look at the choices, answer the question in your own words from the passage.
2. For each choice, ask: can I point to the exact line that proves this?
3. If a choice describes a scene that never appears in the footage, cut it. It does not matter how reasonable it sounds.

When to run it: main idea, inference, and "which choice best supports" questions.

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Grammar questions hide a small sentence inside a big one. Cross out the extras until you can hear the core.

1. Cut the descriptive chunks set off by commas, and cut prepositional phrases like "of the students" or "in the lab."
2. Find the bare subject and verb that are left, and check that they agree.
3. Read your shrunken sentence with each answer choice. The right one sounds complete, not run-on and not cut off.

Example: "The collection of rare films, donated by a retired projectionist, (was / were) stored downstairs." Shrink it: "The collection was stored." Singular subject, singular verb.

When to run it: any Standard English Conventions question.

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Transition words are traffic signals between two ideas: keep going straight, turn, or show what caused what.

1. Read the sentence before the blank and the sentence after it. Ignore the choices for now.
2. Decide the relationship yourself: same direction (also, in addition), a turn (however, in contrast), or cause and effect (as a result, therefore).
3. Only then look at the choices, and pick the one that matches the signal you already chose.

When to run it: every transition question. Deciding the relationship first keeps tempting wrong answers from steering you.

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