A student notes question tests whether you can use facts to meet a writing goal. Read the goal first, and name the goal's two parts: what the answer must show about the person and which part of their life it must cover. Then set aside sentences that miss either part, even if they report true facts. Check the remaining sentence against the notes for both its topic and timing. An achievement can be accurate without serving the writer's purpose.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the goal’s topic and time period. Which words tell you what to emphasize, and which tell you when?
- Hint 2
In the notes about Ride’s later work, ask who the work is meant to help. How does that connect to the goal’s mention of science education?
Step-by-step
Match the goal to the notes
Step 1Name both parts of the goal
The goal's commitment to science education points us toward work that helps people learn science, not every scientific accomplishment in Ride's life. What else must the sentence show? The words following her NASA career set the time: after her work at NASA. That tells us what the sentence needs to show: support for science learning after NASA, with both the kind of work and the time period stated in the sentence.
- Step 2
Set aside other accomplishments
Which sentences give us something other than that kind of work? The sentence about the first American woman in space describes what Ride achieved at NASA, while laser research describes her own study of physics. The sentence about the Columbia Accident Investigation Board reports her help examining a shuttle disaster. We can set those sentences aside because none shows her work in science education, the subject named by commitment to science education.
- Step 3
Check the work and its timing
Does the remaining sentence match the notes on both the work and its timing? The notes say After leaving NASA, she co-founded Sally Ride Science in 2001, and the organization develops science programs and materials for students. Co-founding that group shows support for students' science learning after NASA, so the sentence's to encourage students’ interest in science ties Ride's work to the education goal instead of only listing an achievement. Choice D.