Passage Discussion

[csunnerberg13]

What is the scale in this passage? I'm having difficulty creating scales for many passages and I'm trying to work on this skill - this was one passage where I really didn't see two sides to a scale. I more saw one general discussion that was organized in a certain way:

*There are lots of unanswered questions about Okapis - example: better compared to giraffes or horses?
*Starting to make breakthroughs on these questions - example: learning about population and setting told us they were less rare than previously thought
*Explaining why this previous view was held
*Still some questions left unanswered

How would I think about this passage in terms of a scale?

Thanks

[ohthatpatrick]

I agree you wouldn't/shouldn't think of this passage as having a scale. Remember, not all passages do. Most of them do, so the scale is normally a helpful way for organizing information in the passage. But when a passage seems to be more descriptive, informative, neutral, etc. don't force a scale onto it.

We could certainly try to create a scale with EACH of the separate questions raised.

Horse vs. giraffe?

Rare vs. hidden?

But we'd end up with several scales or we'd end up pointlessly elevating one question as more important than another.

I think you did a good job with your Passage Map (all passages deserve one of those).

Normally, these informative/descriptive (scale-less) passages still have a signature author sentence that we could point to as the overarching "Most Valuable Sentence" ... something that encapsulates a summary of the passage or something that expresses why the author finds this informative/descriptive topic especially interesting or noteworthy.

But I don't even find THAT in this passage. This just sounds like a plate of facts ... a research update on the okapi.

Nice work.