Understanding Text Structure

Understanding Text Structure

To follow the logic and message of a selection and to remember it, analyze the text structure, or organization of ideas, within a writer’s work. Recognizing the pattern of organization can help you discover the writer’s purpose and will focus your attention on important ideas in the selection. Look for signal words to point you to the structure. 

  • Spatial sequence uses words or phrases such as nearby, to the left, above, and behind to show the physical arrangement of people and objects in an area. 

  • Order of importance will use words such as most important and least necessary to compare the importance of things or ideas. 

  • Chronological order often uses such words as first, then, after, later, and finally to show a sequence of events in time. 

  • Cause-and-effect order discusses chains of events using words or phrases such as therefore, because, subsequently, or as a result. 

  • Comparison-contrast order may use words or phrases such as similarly, in contrast, likewise, or on the other hand. 

  • Problem-solution order presents a problem and then offers one or more solutions. A problem-solution structure may incorporate other structures such as order of importance, chronological order, or comparison-contrast order.

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