After you have skimmed an informational article or chapter, noting what its typographical features tell you about the author's purpose and ideas, it's time to read the text more closely and carefully. As you read, look for clues that suggest how the author has decided to organize his or her information.
As you may remember from an earlier lesson, informational text tends to follow one of several organizational patterns. Click through the slides below to review the most common patterns and how they are used.
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Chronological order places steps or events in time sequence to show the time relationships among actions or ideas in a text.
Descriptive text is used to explain a situation, event, person, or place in detail. It may follow a spatial order, describing where things are in relation to each other, or it may move from a broad, general idea to a smaller or more specific one.
Comparative order arranges details in a way that helps writers (and readers) identify similarities and differences among two or more things.
A cause-and-effect structure is typically used to demonstrate how and why something has happened.
Author use a problem-solution text structure to describe a problem and then suggest possible answers to it. |
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Question
Which two organization patterns are most common in text about historical events?
chronological and cause and effect
