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Patterns of Organization: Source: More Reading Power

There are four main patterns of organization that authors use to structure details in support of a main idea: 1. Listing - A series of related ideas or examples. 2. Sequence - Events or steps ordered by time or process. 3. Comparison/contrast - Examining similarities and/or differences between two or more things. 4. Cause/effect - Showing how one thing results from or leads to another. Signal words help identify the pattern used.

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Nanda Saalino
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30 views

Patterns of Organization: Source: More Reading Power

There are four main patterns of organization that authors use to structure details in support of a main idea: 1. Listing - A series of related ideas or examples. 2. Sequence - Events or steps ordered by time or process. 3. Comparison/contrast - Examining similarities and/or differences between two or more things. 4. Cause/effect - Showing how one thing results from or leads to another. Signal words help identify the pattern used.

Uploaded by

Nanda Saalino
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Patterns of Organization

Source: More Reading Power


by Beatrice S. Mikulecky / Linda
Jeffries
A typical reading selection contains a list of details
that supports the main idea. The author organizes
these details in a pattern to show how the details
relate to each other. There are four different
patterns of organization.

• 1. listing
• 2. Sequence
• 3. comparison / contrast
• 4. Cause / Effect
Listing of related Ideas or examples
• People have many different ideas about what makes a great
vacation. Some people like to go for long walks in the forest,
where they won’t see anyone for days. Others prefer to spend
their holiday in an exciting city. There they can visit museums,
theaters, and good restaurants. Still others enjoy the fresh air
at the seashore. They can spend their days at the beach and
listen to the ocean waves at night. A few people decide to
stay at home and do some major household projects. They
might spend their vacation painting a porch or washing all the
windows in their apartment.
• All the underlined words are signal words or transitional.
Transition Signals for Listing or Signal words

a few, other(s), another, first,


several, many, inaddition, second,
numerous, a variety, besides, third,
the main, for example, one, and last etc.
2. Sequence
This pattern is used for the organization of two
kinds of materials:

1. events order by time


examples: history, biography

2. steps in a process
examples: the step in an experiment; direction for
building something
Example of Sequence
the writer’s main idea includes a series─events or steps
that follow one after another
• Albert Ainstein was born near the end of the 1800s in Ulm,
Germany. He graduated from the University of Zurich in
Switzerland at the age of 26. Fourteen year later he won the
Nobel Prize for Physics. For the next ten years he lived in
Germany . Then, in the early 1930s, he had to leave Germany
because of Hitler and the Nazi Party. He moved to the United
States, where he lived until the time of his death at the age of
74. He lived a long and productive life.

• All the underlined words or phrases are signal words or


transitional.
• The last sentence of the paragraph is main idea.
Comparison and Contrast
• Comparison: As you know, to compare is to
examine two or more things (or ideas) and note
similarities or differences between them.
However, for a reading test, comparison means
that the author examines two or more ideas and
noting only their similarities. When you notice
that an author is pointing out ways in which two
ideas resemble each other, you are noticing the
comparison pattern.
• Contrast: The author examines two or more
things (or ideas) and notes how they are different.
Example of Comparison and Contrast
• Visitors see some similarities between New York and San
Francisco. Both cities, for example, are exciting culture
centers. They are equally attractive to people from many
parts of the world. The cities are also alike because they both
have many beautiful buildings, large, lovely parks, and grand
bridges. On the other hand, the two cities have important
differences. On difference is lifestyle. New Yorkers are always
in a hurry and are much less friendly than residents of San
Francisco. The streets in the California city are very clean,
unlike New York, where the streets are often dirty. Another
major difference is safety: San Francisco has much less crime
than New York.
• All the underlined words are signal words or transitional.
• The main idea is: There are both similarities and differences
between New York and San Francisco.
Some signal words or transitional for the Comparison – Contrast Pattern:

Signals of difference:
However but unlike on the other hand
In contrast while althoughconversely
Instead yet rather different from
More than less than
Signals of similarity:
Like both similarly in the same way as
Same also in common

Comparative forms of adjectives and adverbs are also


used to signal difference (older, faster).
Cause and Effect
• Cause and Effect: The author shows that one
thing (or idea) is the result of another. The
author may be showing you one or more
causes of an effect, or he or she may show
one or more effects of a single cause. Be
careful; it is easy to forget that a list of causes
is more than just a list of items.
Signal words for Cause-Effect
• Cause lead(s) to is the cause of result in
produce gives rise to can result from
consequences of follows is due to brings
about

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