5. Cheatsheet
In Sentence Insertion questions, we are given a paragraph with four blanks in between it. We are also given a sentence which has been taken from this paragraph. We need to fit the given sentence in one of the four blanks, after finding out where it is appropriate to position this sentence, by understanding the key message of the paragraph and the given sentence.
Solving strategies:
1) Identifying the key message based on the first 1-2 sentences, last sentence or the entire paragraph, with the author's tone also being important.
2) Identifying the function of the given sentence, which can be
- Introduction
- Explanation for the author's premise
- Reason for the author's premise
- Data or logical argument for the author's premise
- Supporting the author's point
- Example
- Contrasting sentence
- Emphasising sentence or conclusion
3) Using techniques such as
- Identifying a gap in the paragraph, which can be resolved with the given sentence
- Using the context of the passage to find the suitable blank
- Cause and effect (if the given sentence is either a cause or an effect)
- Parallelism (if the sentence has a similar function as another sentence before or after a blank, e.g. 2 reasons or 2 examples)
- Using Chronological cues
- Using Grammar or key words such as but, also, even better, indeed, etc.
4) Eliminating blanks based on the paragraph's context, logical sequences, chronology and grammar.
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