reading strategies: Text Structures

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4,5

Paragraph development and text structures

Objectives:

You understand the concept of paragraph development

You can identify the different text structures

1. Understanding text structures and paragraph development can help you make and interpret arguments.

2. CITO expects you to be able to identify text structures and understand paragraph development.

Paragraph

"(in a piece of writing) one of a series of subsections each usually devoted to one idea and each usually marked by the beginning of a new line, indentation, increased interlinear space, etc"    according to collinsdictionary.com

A paragraph contains:

1. Topic sentence(s)

-To introduce and state the controlling idea

-To preview for the reader the kinds of information that the rest of the paragraph is likely to contain

-To link back to the thesis or the immediately preceding argument

2. Development or elaboration of ideas

To elaborate the new idea or point that has been introduced. Elaboration may include analysis, exemplification and persuasion, or any combination of these.

3 Usually: Concluding sentence(s)

To round off what has been said so far in the paragraph

To qualify the views expressed

To link the current paragraph to the next paragraph

The role(s) and different types of the development section of a paragraph

This part of the paragraph elaborates the controlling idea expressed in the topic sentence.

There are several ways to do so.

• Describing:  presenting more information about the controlling idea. 

• Exemplifying: using examples to illustrate the controlling idea. 

• Analyzing comparing and contrasting concepts associated with the
         controlling idea. 

• Challenging:  questioning information or perspectives related to the
         controlling idea. 

• Persuading: building an argument around the controlling idea and its
         relationship to the specific argument it is part of. 

• Presenting supporting evidence - giving references to e.g., sources, experts.

Text structure 

Refers to how information is organized in a passage (so how the controlling idea in a paragraph is developed). 

Multiple text structures can be found within a work and even within a paragraph. 

   

at a glance

Which text structure was used in text 1?

1. sequence
2. description
3. cause and effect
4. compare and contrast

Which text structure was used in text 2?

1. cause and effect
2. compare and contrast
3. problem and solution
4. description

Which text structure was used in text 3?

1. sequence
2. compare and contrast
3. problem and solution
4. description

Which text structure was used in text 4?

1. cause and effect
2. compare and contrast
3. problem and solution
4. sequence

Which text structure was used in text 5?

1. sequence
2. problem and solution
3. cause and effect
4. compare and contrast

Which text structure was used in text 6?

1. sequence
2. problem and solution
3. cause and effect
4. compare and contrast

Which text structure was used in text 7?

1. cause and effect
2. problem and solution
3. description
4. sequence

Which text structure was used in text 8?

1. cause and effect
2. problem and solution
3. compare and contract
4. sequence

Which text structure was used in text 7?

1. cause and effect
2. problem and solution
3. compare and contrast
4. sequence