Subtest I: Reading, Language Arts, and Literature Study Guide for the CSET Multiple Subjects Test

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

In-depth study of a topic is a valuable way to learn more about a subject. When you conduct an inquiry into a topic, research is required. Research is the investigation one conducts to learn more about something. Researching reliable sources, synthesizing the information, and presenting the knowledge to an audience are skills that require time and dedication. There are multiple steps to the research process, and the road to presenting findings may be a long one.

Research Methods

Researchers use a variety of methods or approaches to study a topic. It is important to assess the credibility and accuracy of the sources you use in your research to ensure reliability and validity. Research conducted by an unknown or unnamed source may not provide credible information that can be used to support valid learning. Research the researchers and the study, and check to make sure that they followed research protocols themselves and are presenting authentic information that is backed up and supported by other sources.

Multiple authoritative print— In the research process, it is a good idea to cross-check resources and make sure that the information being presented is backed up by other reliable sources. This term is actually made up of three specific parts: multiple just means that more than one source presents similar research findings. If there are multiple sources that report the same “facts,” then chances are good that the sources are reliable and the facts have been vetted. Authoritative sources are from people who have knowledge, understanding, training, or skill in a particular field. They are the experts in a particular field of study. And print just means that the research has been published for an audience to access. Although print may evoke images of books or research papers, the print source may be online resources that are accessed electronically (see also, digital research sources below).

Digital research sources— Digital research sources are typically repositories and databases of research findings that are available to the public or to scholars interested in a particular subject. Though it is tempting to conduct a Google search for a topic, the sites listed must be evaluated for their credibility and accuracy. As with print resources, just because the resource exists doesn’t necessarily make it a trustworthy or reliable source of data. Online resources can be valid resources, but one must evaluate the credibility of each source.

When presenting information to an audience through a report of findings, it is important to provide relevant information in a coherent way. Reports that are disorganized or include unnecessary information are difficult for an audience to understand or appreciate. Emphasis on the salient points presented in an organized and focused way with clear reasoning, evidence, and details will result in a research report that effectively relays information to the audience. Here are some common report types that may be used to share research findings with an audience.

Argument— Researchers may present their findings in an argument format. In this type of report, the writer presents a claim about a subject with which not everyone will agree. The writer must then use the research he or she has conducted to provide evidence and support as to why his or her argument is valid and should be considered. Although not necessarily persuasive in nature, though the writer may want to convince the audience to agree with his or her position, an argument report makes a claim and presents evidence that the argument is a valid one that should be given consideration, even if the audience doesn’t necessarily agree with it.

Narrative— Narrative reports present research findings in a detailed way. Explaining or telling the story of the issue and the research conducted on that issue, narrative reports aim to present a factual description, or narration, of what has taken place and the findings of the research.

Response to literature— In a response to literature report, the writer is responding with his or her analysis to a text written by another. Elements of literature, including plot, character development, use of figurative language, etc., may be analyzed and explored in a response to literature, with the writer using specific references to that text as evidence to make his or her point.

Citing Research Sources

Research requires… research! This means reading and evaluating a variety of sources and synthesizing the information into your research findings. When you reference other sources, however, it is imperative that you cite those sources and give proper credit where it is due. Here are some applications where citation must be provided.

Plagiarism— Plagiarism is a crime. Although it may seldom be prosecuted, most plagiarism incidents are actually misdemeanors and offenders may be fined and/or jailed for up to 1 year. The definitions and parameters of plagiarism can become fuzzy, but, in a nutshell, plagiarism means copying words or ideas from a source without giving credit to that source. This may include not using quotation marks appropriately, not citing a source correctly, or using so much content from another source that it makes up the majority of what someone claims to be his or her own work.

Plagiarism is a serious offense and can result in severe punishment from educational institutions, including being kicked out of a school. Helping young students understand how to incorporate the words or ideas of another into their own work without plagiarizing will help set them up for success.

Paraphrase— Paraphrasing means rewording or rephrasing the words of another into one’s own words. Unlike a summary, which is a condensed version of the main points of a text, paraphrasing does not mean shortening the overall length of the text. Paraphrasing is like translating a text into your own words. When you are paraphrasing, however, the original ideas and words must be credited by including appropriate citation of the original source.

Bibliography/works cited— There are multiple ways to approach giving credit to research sources. A bibliography is a list of all of the texts and resources consulted by a researcher. The sources listed in a bibliography may or may not be used and cited (whether quoted or paraphrased) within the research report. A works cited page narrows the list to those resources that the researcher actually uses and cites in his or her report. Any source, whether a print text, visual, artistic representation, or electronic resource, must be named and given credit. Bibliographies and works cited pages have distinct formatting and information requirements, depending on the writing style used (MLA, APA, Chicago Style, etc.).

Presenting Claims and Findings

When presenting claims and research findings to an audience, the presenter must create a sense of ethos with his or her audience. This means that the audience can see the presenter as a knowledgeable person on the subject, someone who has done valid research using reliable sources and synthesized the information he or she has gathered to present his or her ideas and findings to the audience in a clear and concise way.

Eye contact— When presenting orally, it is important to make eye contact with the audience. Public speaking can be scary, and it may seem easier to get through by just keeping your head down and referring to your notes, but without eye contact, the audience has no sense of connection with the presenter and, as a result, no connection with what is being presented. This doesn’t mean that a presenter should be staring into the audience the whole time, but work to balance eye contact with audience members thoughtfully with glances down at notes or at the presentation. Also, try to make eye contact with the whole room, not just one or two people in the front row. Speak to the front of the crowd, the back of the crowd, and both sides. This may require slight turning of your body to engage with all areas of the room.

Vocal elements (volume, rate, pitch)— Depending on the environment in which you are presenting, there may be microphones to help augment and project your voice into all areas in the room. With or without the use of assistive devices, be aware of your volume, rate of speech, and pitch when you are presenting orally. Project your voice and speak up so that all audience members can hear you.

Avoid speaking too rapidly, when words may not be enunciated and instead get garbled together and become difficult or impossible for the audience to understand. However, don’t speak too slowly or the audience may become restless or bored.

In addition to volume, consider the pitch of your voice. Pitch refers to the timbre or tone of your voice. Some people have higher-pitched voices and others have lower voice registers. Generally speaking, mid- to lower-tone voices are best received by an audience. Also be sure to modulate your voice as you speak and avoid a monotone delivery.

Pronunciation— Correct pronunciation of the words used in a speech or presentation is a must. Practicing and reviewing a presentation before delivering it in front of an audience can help you work through difficult or unfamiliar words ahead of time so you don’t stumble over them during a presentation. If you are not certain about how to pronounce a word, look it up. Mispronunciation of words can be very distracting for an audience and if they get caught up thinking about that word you just mispronounced, they’re not thinking about or listening to the words that you continue to deliver in your presentation.

Reading Comprehension and Analysis

Reading comprehension is the ability to read and understand a text. Students may be literate, in that they can read a text, but comprehending it means being able to internalize it, process it, discern meaning from it, incorporate that meaning with the reader’s own experiences, and apply that meaning to applications outside of the text.

Reading Literature

State standards require students to be able to read and analyze a variety of age-appropriate literary genres from diverse cultures. In their analysis, students must consider both literary elements and structural features of the texts.

Literary Genres

The term genre is really just a classification or category of, in this case, literature. Aside from the two main groups of fiction and non-fiction, within each of those groups is a myriad of genres. Here are some of the main ones with which you should be familiar.

Novels— Novels are texts that tell a story. They are considered narrative fiction, which is to say that they tell a story that has been created by the author though there may be a certain sense of realism about them. Novels have characters who experience the events of a plot and generally learn something about themselves or the greater world by the end. Novels tend to be longer texts, generally running at least 200 pages, organized into multiple chapters, and published in book format.

Short Stories— Short stories have some of the same characteristics as a novel—characters, conflict, plot, setting, etc.—but they are much shorter texts and are intended to be read in one sitting. Still self-contained literary pieces, short stories aren’t usually organized into chapters because they are too short.

Folktales— Folktales often start as oral traditions, stories passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth. They are unique to a particular group or culture, though there are universal themes that seem to transcend time and place and appear in many different folktales. Folktales are often told to explain a natural phenomenon, to teach a moral lesson, or to explain how something came into being.

Fairy Tales— Fairy tales are short stories generally geared toward children. Fairy tales are full of imaginary creatures and fantastical adventures. Often incorporating elements of magic or superstition, these tales of wonder are a form of folktale.

Poems— Poems are generally short texts organized and structured with meter and rhyme. Although not all poems use meter or rhyme, and some can be quite long and tell a story, poems tend to use figurative language to convey emotions or feelings to an audience. Poems are organized into stanzas, though poets can take creative license when it comes to writing and formatting poetry.

Dialogue

Dialogue helps bring stories and texts to life. Dialogue is the conversation between two or more characters in a text. Dialogue can help develop a character and give the reader insight into the type of person he or she is, the character’s morals and values, and whether it is someone with whom the reader can connect. Dialogue can also help advance the plot of the story and it helps address the reader’s curiosity: we want to know who said what and how it was responded to by the other characters. Stories without dialogue tend to be more challenging to engage with for the reader.

Fiction— In a fictional text like a short story or a novel, dialogue is used to give insight to the characters and their personality. The reader learns more about them by what they say and by what others say about them. The dialogue is usually interspersed into the text in a piece of fiction. While conversations and dialogue help provide insight, too much dialogue can become confusing for the reader as he or she tries to keep track of who’s saying what. Generally speaking, fiction will have dialogue that is balanced with description from the author in text form.

Drama— Drama is meant to be performed by actors and actresses and watched by an audience. Most drama is dialogue between the characters or soliloquies where a character shares his or her innermost thoughts with the audience without other characters hearing it. Stage directions tend to be minimal in most plays: the setting, the characters, the background, the conflict, almost everything is discovered through the dialogue.

Literary Devices

When writers write, they employ a variety of literary devices to make their words more attractive to and accepted by the audience. Literary devices are used purposefully for a variety of reasons, from enhancing the details and description of a narrative to helping the audience make connections using analogies. You should be able to identify and evaluate a variety of literary devices in the following types of texts.

Prose— Texts written as prose are the most common types of texts. Prose refers to language being used in its “natural” form, which is to say without any metrical or poetic structure. Prose may be fictional or nonfictional texts. It is made up of complete sentences joined together in cohesive paragraphs. When writing prose, authors may use a wide variety of literary devices to help engage the reader and to help the audience create a mental picture of what they are reading, making connections to the ideas being presented. Common literary devices found in prose include: allusion, euphemism, foreshadowing, hyperbole, imagery, personification, metaphors, and similes. Although prose may use figurative language and other literary devices, it is considered “ordinary” or “everyday” writing. Texts that are not written in prose are written in poetry, explained below.

Poetry— Whereas prose is “normal” writing, poetry is more “artistic” and can be very ornamental and intricate. The structure of poetry can vary, but there is often a set meter or pattern to the words used. The language used in poetry tends to be more expressive and uses even more figurative language than does prose. To help with the “musicality” that poetry often expresses, devices such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, elision, and rhyme may be used to help the poetry sound like a song and maintain a certain rhythm or beat. Rather than being organized in sentences and paragraphs, poems may be as simple as a collection of words artistically conveying a message from the poet, and the writer may elect to use free verse as opposed to formal poetic structure with a regular pattern of rhythm.

Word Choice

Words matter. Writers understand the very powerful nature of words and use them carefully in their writing and speaking to evoke particular responses from the audience. The CSET will ask you to decipher the meaning of words and phrases that are used in a text. You may be asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the word choice and consider what better word could be used in a particular sentence.

Literal— Language and the words used in language may be literal or figurative. Literal language uses words exactly as their meaning or denotation states they are to be used. In other words, it is what it is, no shades of meaning. Literal language is straightforward and very black-and-white.

Figurative— Figurative language, on the other hand, uses words without following what their literal meaning might be. Figurative language is more “artistic”, and its use introduces shades of meaning into a sentence. For example, if you say, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,” you don’t literally mean that you have a hankering for some palomino. Instead, the words are being used to create a sense for the audience as to just how hungry you are. Horses are large creatures, so if you’re so hungry you could eat a horse, you must be pretty hungry. The subtle comparison that our brains make when words are used figuratively helps us, as an audience, understand the comparison or suggestion being made.

Denotation— Words have a connotation and a denotation. Similar to the idea of literal language, a word’s denotation is what it actually, literally means. If you look a word up in the dictionary, you are getting its denotation. Considering a word’s denotation helps writers use words correctly to effectively communicate with an audience.

Connotative— The connotative meaning of a word refers to the emotion or feeling a particular word may evoke for the audience. There are many synonymous words in English, and considering the connotation of a word and how it will be received by the audience is an important consideration for writers. For example, there is a different connotation when describing someone as being thin or trim as opposed to being gaunt or lanky. While these words all share roughly the same meaning, their connotations vary widely. Connotations may be positive or negative, and some words have neutral connotations no matter how they are used.

Meaning— Making sure that you use the correct word, the one that has the intended meaning, is key. Words may have similar meanings, but that doesn’t mean that they are appropriate to use in any and all situations. Consider a word’s meaning when deciding whether it is appropriate to use. The difference between slang terms and formal language is also something to consider when thinking about meaning. Will the audience know and recognize the meaning of slang words? Technical terms? Selecting the right words with clear and commonly understood meanings will help deliver a clear message to the audience.

Tone— The tone with which you deliver the words you choose also matters. Tone refers to the pitch of one’s voice when speaking. Although normal speaking tone may be one thing, when presenting in front of a large group, one’s tone may change as a result of nerves or an attempt to increase volume. Word choice also impacts tone, so being mindful of the words you select to deliver your message will affect the tone of the delivery. Considering how word choice affects tone is one of the elements on the CSET.

Text Structure

Text structure impacts the overall effectiveness of a literary text. How the information is organized and presented affects how it is perceived by an audience. Texts with little structure or organization will be confusing, whereas a text with a thoughtful organizational format will help guide the reader from one idea to the next more easily.

Meaning— How a text is structured can affect its meaning. When disorganized or circular, the audience may misunderstand or misinterpret the intended message or meaning, becoming lost in the words. Meaning is best conveyed when the structure of the text is clearly organized and ideas are logically presented with effective transitions helping to move the reader through.

Style— Writers can show their personal style through their choices for text structure. However, writers generally determine their structure based on their audience. Considering how the presentation of ideas will make the most sense to them, writers make structure, diction, and syntax choices based on the target audience.

Point of View

The writer’s voice can come across to the reader through a variety of points of view. The point of view of a text refers to the perspective from which the information is provided to the audience. In the case of fiction, writers may use a character as a narrator to relay the events of a story. In a nonfiction text, the writer may work to set him or herself up as delivering an unbiased point of view. Different points of view can create different effects on the reader.

Character— When a writer uses a character or creates a narrator to tell a story, he or she is selecting a particular point of view. The typical choices for points of view in a text are first-person, third-person limited, and third-person omniscient.

First-person point of view uses the first person pronoun, I. In a story, if the narrator refers to him or herself in first person, then the point of view is considered first person.

Third-person limited point of view follows the events of a story from just one character’s perspective. The audience sees the events unfold only through the lens of this one character. While we may have insight into this one person’s thoughts or feelings, we are limited in knowing what the other characters are thinking or feeling.

Third-person omniscient point of view gives the audience insight into everyone’s thoughts and feelings. It is often explained as imagining the reader is sitting on a hill overlooking the action of the story. From his or her vantage point, the reader can see into everyone’s windows and knows how each character is reacting to the events.

Audience/reader— The effect of the point of view on the audience or reader is tremendous. With third-person omniscient point of view, for example, the audience or reader may feel entirely included in the story as he or she is completely immersed in everyone’s thoughts and feelings. A more limited point of view may leave the reader or audience feeling a heightened sense of suspense or uncertainty as they don’t have the “big picture” but only see the events unfold from a limited perspective.