ACT® · Reading — Craft and Structure: Text Structure
A Sentence's Function When It Is Subtle or Complex
A subtle sentence does a job in the argument besides stating a fact: it concedes a point, fences in a claim, or flips what matters. Find that job by asking what the sentences around it need from it.
Every sentence in a passage is there to do something for the paragraph, not just to add information. Easy sentences announce their job: 'however' signals contrast, 'for example' signals support. Subtle sentences do the job without the signal, or do it while sounding like they are agreeing. A sentence that opens with 'of course' looks like a throwaway concession, but it is usually the writer naming the strongest objection on purpose, so the next sentence can answer it. If you read 'of course' and then stop paying attention, you miss the hinge: the sentence that follows is doing the real work, and it only makes sense as an answer to the one before it.
A second subtle move is the limiting sentence. It does not attack the main claim; it draws a fence around it. A sentence noting that a trial only enrolled adults between two ages is not disagreeing with the efficacy number. It is saying where that number is allowed to apply. Writers do this so a claim can stay strong inside its proper boundary instead of getting stretched to cover cases it was never tested on.
A third move shows up at the end of a paragraph: a final sentence can close the topic and simultaneously reverse which evidence the reader should now weight most. This matters for the whole-passage shape question sitting next to this one, because a paragraph's last sentence often tells you what the next paragraph will build on, not what the paragraph you just read was mainly about. A sentence can also do two of these jobs at once, conceding and limiting in the same breath, so check whether it answers an objection, fences a claim, or both before picking one answer.
Key terms
- concession sentence
- A sentence that grants a point or objection so the writer can address or overturn it right after.
- limiting sentence
- A sentence that narrows where or to whom a claim applies without disputing the claim itself.
- pivot
- A sentence, often the last in a paragraph, that shifts which evidence or idea the reader should now treat as most important.
- dual function
- When one sentence performs two jobs at once, such as conceding a point while also limiting its scope.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does a sentence quietly concede a point so the paragraph after it can overturn that point?
- How it worksHow does a sentence set a limit on a claim without appearing to disagree with it?
- Worked exampleShow me the function of: of course, the earliest surveys covered only three counties.
- Going furtherWhat happens when a single sentence performs two functions at once?
Check yourself
End of topic.