"Attitudinal Markers"

[WaltGrace1983]

I have recently begun my journey through the world of Reading Comprehension (it is a frightening journey so far but I am going to be optimistic). I think I came to a huge breakthrough today in understanding passages when I was sent this video, "Meet the Reading", and I began to pay particular attention from 4:46 to the end. I didn't know that words such as "claimed" can have such deep implications, ultimately implying that the author is a little bit skeptical of what said people claim. I used to think that this was a fairly objective term. So I began to dissect a passage that I was working on today, one that went fairly well in terms of accuracy but not so much in terms of time (finished in about 10 minutes). I would like to go through this passage, paying particular attention to such words and their implications and hopefully someone will tell me if I am right in my thought process.

PT29, Passage 1

Paragraph 1
Line 3: "...some have described as prophetic..."

-This would be implying a little bit of skepticism, no? The author is saying, "some people have said this" and if the author was agreeing with these some people, the author probably would have said something more objective such as "These paintings are prophetic..."

Line 6: "...are thus said to..."

Does this imply a little bit of skepticism or lack of agreement, too? Whenever I personally use this in a sentence I am implying that I either don't agree or I don't have an opinion.

Line 8: "but all these styles had in common a very important..."

The passage is making an objective point, right? The author seems to be agreeing with this point, basically saying "some people believe these works of art are prophetic but I will at least say this: they break tradition!"

Paragraph 2
Line 12-13: "...it is not surprising to discover..."

The word "discover" seems to be objective here too, right? If you discovered something, it has to be true no matter how you look at it. It seems then, that the author would be agreeing with this point or at least stating its truth.

Line 15: ah. We discovered that they are "often credited..." So it seems that the only thing the author is saying is that it is in fact true that people credit the artists with "anticipating subsequent developments in arts, political disruptions, social disruptions, etc."

Line 20: "One art critic even goes so far as to claim that..."

This seems to highlight the author's views explicitly. The author is implying that the views of the art critic aren't exactly TRUE ones.

Paragraph 3
Line 30-32: "But the forward-looking quality attributed to the artists should instead be credited to their exceptional..."

The word "should" here is a pretty clear indication of the author's opinion. This may be the most important sentence in the whole passage.

Line 41-2: "The reformation of society was of no interest to them as artists."

This, to me, is INCREDIBLY interesting. If something is written in the passive voice or using a "to be" verb without any other opinionated words, can it be assumed that this is just a fact?

This is not meant to elicit some hard and fast rules that are always able to be followed. However, I am just trying to think about some basics as I begin the RC process. Am I way off in my thoughts?

[ohthatpatrick]

Cool video. I didn't watch the whole thing, but I used to work with that guy, Dave.

I think you're exactly on point with most of your observations. Let me just say a few things or tweak a few of them.

Technically, 'claimed', 'often credited', 'some would say', etc. ARE neutral, objective phrases. I mean, in and of themselves, they do not give us PROOF that the author disagrees.

However, what you're correctly seeing is how BIG of a clue those types of phrases can be that the author WILL ultimately disagree.

When passages start with other people's opinions ... claims/ideas that are somehow held off at arm's length with ascriptive phrases such as the ones we just mentioned ... the author will almost always drop a BUT / YET / HOWEVER somewhere in the passage and pivot into his own sentiment of disagreement.

So as you surmised, 30-34 is the Most Valuable Sentence in this passage.

Great work in P1, recognizing that the last sentence is NOT presented at arm's length. Thus, it DOES seem like the author actually accepts that idea.

The only reservations I had with some of your observations were these:

Paragraph 2
Line 12-13: "...it is not surprising to discover..."

The word "discover" seems to be objective here too, right? If you discovered something, it has to be true no matter how you look at it. It seems then, that the author would be agreeing with this point or at least stating its truth.

The word 'discover' doesn't provide any clear clue to me here. You could remove 'to discover' from the sentence and have no change in meaning or tone. You're definitely right that the second half of the sentence, saying that these artists are often credited, is a clue that the author does not necessarily share that opinion. The first half of the sentence is just saying that it's not surprising that some people would make this judgment, since the artists in question are so different from their contemporaries.


Line 41-2: "The reformation of society was of no interest to them as artists."

This, to me, is INCREDIBLY interesting. If something is written in the passive voice or using a "to be" verb without any other opinionated words, can it be assumed that this is just a fact?


I definitely don't know where you're going with this one. Passive vs. active voice has nothing to do with whether a sentence is fact or opinion.

I think we should be treating this piece of info as fact, simply because the context says that we derived this from "statements by the artists themselves".

Anyway, in a nutshell, I think your epiphany that there are subtle clues foreshadowing the author's ultimate purpose/attitude is a very valid and important one. Just err on the side of conservatism ... don't go crazy reading TOO much into everything. Use attitudinal markers to create suspicions/expectations of where the passage may be headed, but look for concrete proof of the author's voice, such as line 30-34.