Text Structure

Patterns of Organization
 What is Text Structure?
How information in a passage is organized

We will study six common patterns:

• Chronological
• Cause and Effect
• Compare and Contrast
• Problem and Solution
• Sequence / Process
• Spatial / Descriptive
 SEQUENCE OF EVENTS/ Chronological
Information is organized in the order in which they occurred. Note signal words,
the beginning and ending thoughts and the type of intermediate steps..

Chrono = time Logic = order

Example

Jack and Jill ran Jack fell down Jill came

up the hill to fetch and broke his tumbling
a pail of water. crown. after.

ALL stories are told chronologically.

 Sequence / Process Writing
Information is listed step-by-step.
Explains how to do it or how it happens.
4. Flip omelet.

3. Cook on
one side.

2. Add cheese.

1. Crack a
few eggs.
Cause and Effect
An action and its results are explained.
Cause Effect
Students did not learn They performed
the material. poorly on the test.

•Don’t confuse with chronological.

•Won’t have a beginning, middle, and end.
•Time won’t progress much.
Compare and Contrast
Tells how two things are similar and different.

Apples & Oranges

Alike Different
1. Both are fruits. 1. People don’t eat
orange skins.
2. Both have skin.
2. Oranges have
more juice.
 Spatial / Descriptive Writing
Racial is to race as spatial is to space.
Describes something in order of space.
Describes how something looks.
TIME DOESN’T PASS in these passages.

A television across
Two windows on
from the bed.
the west Wall
My bedroom
• Spatial order is used when describing location, such as near to far,
top to bottom, or left to right
Simple Listing: The paragraph identifies or names a
number of specific features, characteristics or
examples that require no specific order of
presentation.
• The pattern is likely to include topic sentences with
phrases such as “several key cases,” “a number of
symptoms,” or “several studies.”
• The details give specifics about the cases, symptoms,
or studies, but they require no specific order of
presentation; they can be rearranged to suit the
author.
Simple Listing Pattern:
Example
• There are three ways to ruin even the best
friendship. Best friends tell each other
secrets they would be unlikely to tell anyone
else. Betray that confidence, and the
friendship can end overnight. If a best
friend’s romance goes down in flames, don’t
date the ex. No matter what your friend says,
he or she will not be happy about the two of
you getting together. Finally, if your best
friend confides in you about a problem, don’t
immediately come up with a solution.
Sometimes friends just want a listener, not a
problem solver.
Diagrams can help you remember by giving you
a visual image to attach to the author’s words.

Betraying a
friend’s secrets

How to lose a Dating the

best friend ex

Always being
a problem
solver.
 Tips to Identify
1. Ask, “what is the author doing in this
paragraph?” Put it in your own words.
2. Have a hunch? Use the graphic
organizer to see if the info fits.
3. Look for signal words.
 Practice
1. Read each passage.
2. Determine how the text is organized:
cause and effect, compare and contrast,
chronological order, sequence / process
writing, problem and solution, or spatial /
descriptive.
3. Write your answer.
 Popular Sports
Football and baseball are two of the
most popular sports in the country. They
have many things in common. For one,
they are both team sports, and they both
require players to advance to an end or
“home” point on the playing field.
However, football requires players to carry
the ball to the end zone, whereas in
baseball, it is the defending team that
controls the ball while it is in play.
 The Magic Blanket
One day while walking home from school,
he found a magic blanket. When he covered
himself with it, he turned invisible. At first he
used his power to play all kinds of tricks on
people. He’d turn invisible and hide things, or
move a cup when someone was pouring juice
to make a mess. He had a lot of fun. But
then one day, he found that he couldn’t take
the blanket off. He was just stuck invisible.
He quit playing tricks on people, hoping that
he’d be able to take the blanket off and rejoin
society, but it didn’t work. He is still invisible
somewhere right now, and he is very lonely.
 Studying for a Test
Believe it or not, as important as it is,
many students do not know how to study
for a test. Well, studying for a test is easy.
The first thing that you must do is take out
your notes. Open your notes up to the
section that you are supposed to review.
Read what you wrote in your notebook.
When you are done, close your notebook
and see if you remember the ideas that
you were studying. Still don’t remember?
Open your notebook back up a try again.
 Louis [XIV] was not a stupid man; he was handsome
and lazy. Madame de Pompadour was his most celebrated
mistress; she was not the only one. Apart from women, be
had few interests and no desire to 'waste" his energies on
projects he deemed relatively unimportant. His kind, dull
wife bore him ten children in hardly more than ten years,
but she could never hold his attention. Women were his
great diversion. One followed another. The post of "king's
head mistress" became the most coveted in the realm.
Father sought it for their daughters, husbands for their
wives. A favorite mistress, like Madame de Pompadour or
Madame du Barry (c. 1746-1793), wielded power. To
offend such a person might be to risk the monarch's wrath.
(A History of the Western World by Solomon Modell.)
 Peanut Butter and Jelly
After a long day at school, I came
home and watched “Cops,” my favorite
show. During the commercial breaks, I got
up and made a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich. I took the bread out of the
cabinet, spread the jelly and peanut butter
on the bread, and stuck the two pieces
together. I enjoyed that sandwich as I
watched the rest of “Cops.”
 The Gym Room
The gym room at the high school down the
street from me is huge. Along the North and
South walls are bleachers that fold up during
gym. Coach pulls the bleachers out for big
games. At the end of the East and West walls
are basketball hoops. The ceilings are very
high and at the top of the gym are many large
windows. The windows go all the way around
the gym. There are also ropes that are either
tucked away or hang from the ceilings in the
middle of the gym. The ropes intimidate
some students. That gym is my favorite place.
 Eligibility
Being involved in after school sports and
clubs is not a right. It is a privilege.
Therefore, students have to meet eligibility
requirements. If students have any “D”s or
“F”s, they are not allowed to play. Also, if
students have behavior issues in class, they
cannot be on the team or in the club. Lastly,
students need to keep good attendance. If
students miss school, they most certainly
cannot come to practice. Being on a team is
a lot of responsibility. If students are not
proving to be responsible, they will not be
permitted to be in clubs or teams.