Applying and analyzing structures | Organization and text structure

Chronological structure

Many writers use chronological order because that’s how we usually tell stories. After all, that’s how most people experience life. However, writers sometimes reverse the order of events in a passage to make a point or develop an effect.

Words that indicate a chronological structure include dates as well as the following:

First
Second
Third
Last
Next
Before
After
Later
Finally

For example:

Throughout most of human history, people have been changing their minds about breakfast. During the medieval period, for example, many Europeans shunned breakfast as an immoral indulgence. Anyone who was hungry that early in the day had clearly been up to no good the night before! That idea began to change during the Renaissance, when a number of writers, including Thomas Cogan and Thomas Wingfield, endorsed it as healthy. The menu often included meat or fish; England’s Queen Elizabeth I is said to have enjoyed beef stew for her morning meal. During the Industrial Revolution, breakfast became more popular, because factory workers heading out for a long day needed to eat something first because they couldn’t bring much with them for lunch. Interestingly, although eating breakfast helped people handle having a small lunch, breakfast remained small, probably because people tend to be in a hurry in the morning before work, so they prefer quick, easy-to-grab meals to more elaborate ones.

Which statement matches the structure of the paragraph best?
a. The passage provides a history of European breakfasts from the Renaissance until today.
b. The passage describes the moral objections to breakfast and explores modern justifications for it.
c. The passage criticizes the centuries-old debate about what to eat for breakfast before pointing out that most people don’t have time for it anyway.
d. The passage begins with medieval superstitions about breakfast and shows that they were debunked during the Industrial Revolution.
e. The passage begins with medieval objections to breakfast and then explains how opinions changed during the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution.

(spoiler)

Answer: d. The passage begins with medieval objections to breakfast and proceeds to explain how opinions changed during the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution is correct because it accurately describes the beginning, middle, and end of the passage.

a. The passage provides a history of European breakfasts from the Renaissance until today is incorrect because the passage begins with the medieval period.

b. The passage describes the moral objections to breakfast and explores modern justifications for it is incorrect because there is no mention of “modern justifications” for eating breakfast.

c. The passage criticizes the centuries-old debate about what to eat for breakfast before pointing out that most people don’t have time for it anyway is incorrect because the passage is not criticizing moral objections to breakfast and because it misstates the rest of the passage entirely.

e. The passage begins with medieval superstitions about breakfast and shows that they were debunked during the Industrial Revolution is incorrect because the passage does not say that those myths were debunked during the Industrial Revolution.

Descriptive writing

Writers include descriptions to paint pictures in their readers’ minds. These descriptions are often introduced with the following phrases:

For example
For instance
Looks like
Smells like
Sounds like

Here’s an example:

This passage is taken from My Antonia, by Willa Cather, found at Project Gutenberg. The narrator, a young boy, is meeting Otto Fuchs for the first time.

I looked up with interest at the new face in the lantern-light. He might have stepped out of the pages of ‘Jesse James.’ He wore a sombrero hat, with a wide leather band and a bright buckle, and the ends of his moustache were twisted up stiffly, like little horns. He looked lively and ferocious, I thought, and as if he had a history. A long scar ran across one cheek and drew the corner of his mouth up in a sinister curl. The top of his left ear was gone, and his skin was brown as an Indian’s. Surely this was the face of a desperado. As he walked about the platform in his high-heeled boots, looking for our trunks, I saw that he was a rather slight man, quick and wiry, and light on his feet. He told us we had a long night drive ahead of us, and had better be on the hike. He led us to a hitching-bar where two farm-wagons were tied, and I saw the foreign family crowding into one of them. The other was for us. Jake got on the front seat with Otto Fuchs, and I rode on the straw in the bottom of the wagon-box, covered up with a buffalo hide. The immigrants rumbled off into the empty darkness, and we followed them.

Which statement best describes the narrator’s first impression of Otto Fuchs?
a. Otto Fuchs is of historical interest to the narrator because he has not kept up with modern times.
b. Otto Fuchs looks as terrifying as the wiliest, most dangerous “desperado.”
c. The narrator thinks that Otto Fuchs is Jesse James.
d. The narrator is impressed by Otto Fuchs’ appearance because he looks like Jesse James, one of the most famous train robbers in American history.
e. The narrator is frightened of Otto Fuchs and stays in the wagon bottom to avoid him.

(spoiler)

Answer: d. The narrator is impressed by Otto Fuchs’ appearance because he looks like Jesse James, one of the most famous train robbers in American history is correct because the passage specifically makes this comparison between the two men.

a. Otto Fuchs is of historical interest to the narrator because he has not kept up with modern times is incorrect because the passage says that Fuchs “looked as if he had a history,” which is not the same as saying that he is “of historical interest.”

b. Otto Fuchs looks as terrifying as the wiliest, most dangerous “desperado” is incorrect because the narrator is impressed by him, not frightened.

c. The narrator thinks that Otto Fuchs is Jesse James is incorrect because the narrator only thinks that Fuchs looks like James.

e. The narrator is frightened of Otto Fuchs and stays in the wagon bottom to avoid him is incorrect because he and his companion ride in the bottom of the wagon covered with a blanket to keep warm, not to avoid Fuchs.

Classification

A passage focused on classification defines separate categories and gives details that fit into each one.

For example:

A student wrote this passage for a science report:

Clouds are classified according to their shape, size, and distance from the ground. Stratus clouds are long and skinny. Cumulus clouds are fluffy. The highest clouds in the sky are the cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, and cirrus. The prefix “cirro-” means high clouds. Altostratus and altocumulus clouds make up the middle-distance clouds, and the lowest level clouds are stratus, nimbostratus, cumulus and stratocumulous. The cumulostratus and nimbostratus clouds make rain.

Which choice best expresses the passage’s organizing structure?
a. It introduces new terminology and provides a comprehensive overview of cloud type and shape.
b. It classifies clouds by their sizes, shapes, and names.
c. It compares different kinds of clouds to one another and then focuses on those that make rain.
d. It includes the etymologies of words about clouds and says which clouds produce rain.
e. It introduces high clouds, mentions a definition, and then names middle and lower height clouds.

(spoiler)

Answer: e. It introduces high clouds, mentions a definition, and then names middle and lower height clouds is correct because it accurately identifies the order in which the student presented the information in the passage.

a. It explains new terminology and provides a comprehensive overview of cloud type and shape is incorrect because the student lists the cloud types without explaining their names and because the passage is not a comprehensive overview, but merely a brief summary.

b.It classifies clouds by their sizes, shapes, and names is incorrect because it is too general. It also misses that the main classification is by distance from the ground.

c. It compares different kinds of clouds to one another and then focuses on those that make rain is incorrect because the passage doesn’t compare the different clouds. It merely lists them.

d. It includes the etymologies of words about clouds and says which clouds produce rain is incorrect because it suggests that the passage focuses on cloud names and their meanings when it does not.

Persuasive/argumentative

An argument is an attempt to persuade. “Claim” is a synonym for “argument.” A text that is attempting to persuade readers to agree with a certain point of view does so by presenting an argument, or claim, and then supporting that claim with facts, examples, and details. Sometimes, a counterargument will be anticipated and refuted. Persuasive passages often end with a call to action.

An argument that is not supported by facts, details, and examples is only an opinion. You will be asked to differentiate between facts and opinions on the test.

Facts vs. opinions

Texts indicate factual information with words like in fact as well as by citing the sources from which they have taken their supporting facts, details, and examples. Facts can be independently verified.

In contrast, authors state their opinions with phrases with “I” language, such as “I think” or “In my opinion.” Opinions are also indicated by value statements, such as “better” or “worse,” and by assertions that are not supported with facts, details, or examples. Opinions can also be called subjective statements.

Compare the following statements:

The Indian Muntjac deer is between sixteen and eighteen inches high. (This is a verifiable fact based on measurements by people who have studied muntjac deer.)

Muntjac deer live in a variety of habitats, including tropical and subtropical zones, grasslands, hilly areas, and forests. (Another verifiable fact.)

Muntjac deer are the cutest deer species. (This is an opinion because cuteness is subjective.)

Muntjac deer would make good pets. (This is an opinion because the definition of a good pet is subjective.)

No one cares about muntjac deer. (This claim is undercut by the fact that some people keep them as pets.)

Here’s a test-like example:

People have known about climate change for over fifty years, yet they have done little to stop it from happening. Our recycling efforts have backfired because plastic companies misled the public about the recyclability of their products, and new plastic products continue to flood the market. There are more cars than ever on the road, and our energy infrastructure is larger–and more damaging–than ever. The World Economic Forum reports that climate change is costing the world sixteen million dollars an hour just to remedy its negative effects. This includes damage to property, infrastructure, and human health. Each decade is the warmest ever recorded, and it’s clear that every ecosystem on earth will be harmed if we aren’t able to stop the warming. However, many of the world’s leaders have abdicated their responsibility to ensure a sustainable future for the human race simply to make themselves richer than they already are. If we want a livable planet for our children, we must band together against these short-sighted leaders, oppose the petroleum industry and its products, and insist that our power grids and vehicles be powered by sustainable energy sources.

Which statement best represents the author’s opinion?
a. It costs $16 million per hour to remediate the ravages of climate change.
b. Climate change is too costly to address.
c. Climate change continues to be a problem because world leaders care more about getting rich than they do about sustaining human life.
d. People should rise up against oil oligarchs and demand that they stop producing petroleum products.
e. We should have stopped climate change in the 1970s.

(spoiler)

Answer: c.Climate change continues to be a problem because world leaders care more about getting rich than they do about sustaining human life is correct because it makes an unprovable assumption–a claim–about world leaders that it does not substantiate.

a. It costs $16 million per hour to remediate the ravages of climate change is incorrect because it is a supporting detail that the writer uses to support the claim that climate change is unsustainably costly.

b. Climate change is too costly to address is incorrect because the writer is upset that the profits from not responding to climate change motivate world leaders to ignore it.

d. People should rise up against oil oligarchs and demand that they stop producing petroleum products is incorrect because it is a misstatement that elevates a detail to a main point while also getting it wrong.

e.We should have stopped climate change in the 1970s is incorrect because, although the writer might believe it, the passage doesn’t say it.