Synthesis & Transformation Practice

Dear all,

As we wrapped up Week 2, here are some pointers to note:

Synthesis & Transformation

We went through the rules for certain structures and I highlighted some common errors to take note of.

Remember that adding in unnecessary words will change the entire meaning.

Another mistake would be missing out words, changing the tenses and the singular/plural form of the nouns.

E.g 

Q. Raju searched everywhere for his wallet but he could not find it. 

Common error 1
In spite of the fact that Raju searched everywhere, he could not find his wallet.

Explanation: 
You need to mention what Raju was searching for as given in the question. It is specifically shown that Raju searched everywhere for his wallet.
Raju searched everywhere --> refers to his action of searching all over the place
Raju searched everywhere for his wallet --> refers to his action of searching all over the place FOR HIS WALLET

Common error 2
In spite of the fact that Raju searched everywhere for his wallet, he still could not find it.

Explanation:
The use of the word 'still' is unnecessary here. It changes the intensity of the result of the search, displaying a more extreme emotion.

Raju could not find it --> general feeling
Raju STILL could not find it --> implies a deeper sense of frustration

There is a difference.

Common error 3
In spite of the fact that Raji searched everywhere for his wallet, he could not find his wallet.

Explanation:
You do not repeat 'his wallet' once again as it is grammatically wrong. In this case, you have to use a pronoun to replace 'his wallet'.
You won't say that 'Peter is a boy and Peter is my friend. Peter likes to play with Peter's toys.'
The correct usage should be 'Peter is a boy and he is my friend. Peter likes to play with his toys.'

Synthesis & Transformation skill 

As such, an important skill that I noticed some of you carrying out and perhaps for the rest of you to try out would be to tick the words you have used, underline the words you have changed and cross out the words that are not needed/used.

Example

Q. Raju searched everywhere for his wallet but he could not find it.

Ans: In spite of the fact that Raju searched everywhere for his wallet, he could not find it.

After going through the answer, head back to the question and apply the skills.

    ✓      ✓               ✓           ✓   ✓     ✓      X  ✓     ✓     ✓   ✓     ✓ 
Raju searched everywhere for his wallet but he could not find it.

Comprehension OE 

As mentioned, the important skills for Comprehension OE is to look at the questions first, underline the key words, read the questions to understand the story briefly first. Thereafter, we will then look at the passage, draw up the summary / chunking table to analyse the story before we look at the answers.

Looking at the questions first
You need to underline the key words (5 W 1 H)
- Who
- Where
- What / Which
- Why
- When
- How
Underline the tenses (past / present) to be used for your answers.

From the questions, they will tell you about the story. Therefore, make meaning of the story development as you read the questions. This will help you transfer what you have made out to your reading of the passage.

As you read, zoom into specific sections of the story to link your questions that you have read earlier. Make notes and highlight these areas.

After the story, you will want to be able to summarise and analyse the story. This is done through chunking in which you categorize the main points into three headings

Characters 
Problem 
Solution 

Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong