ENG 7-3-2023

• Engels
• MBO
• Studiejaar 1

English

How was a text structure again?

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

Reading

As you have learned in lesson 3, text organisation refers to the way a text is organised. At the simplest level, written texts have a beginning, a middle and an end.

As you probably will have guessed, there are more ways in which an author can organise information in a text. It is also important to understand how a text is structured, how the various parts of a text are related to each other.

In this lesson you will learn five important text structures that writers use to organise information, ideas and arguments in their texts. They are called:

Sequence and chronology

Comparison and contrast

Cause and effect

Problem and solution

Description

Reading

As you have learned in lesson 3, text organisation refers to the way a text is organised. At the simplest level, written texts have a beginning, a middle and an end.

As you probably will have guessed, there are more ways in which an author can organise information in a text. It is also important to understand how a text is structured, how the various parts of a text are related to each other.

In this lesson you will learn five important text structures that writers use to organise information, ideas and arguments in their texts. 

They are called:

• Sequence and chronology
  
• Comparison and contrast
  
• Cause and effect
  
• Problem and solution
  
• Description

Which words do you see in this text that indicate the order in which you should do things?

Sequence and chronology

A text or part of a text that uses a structure of sequence and chronology gives readers a chronological order of events or lists steps to do something or make something. Clues are given by signal words, such as meanwhile, finally and earlier , that indicate the order in which you need to do things or in which things happen.

Which words do you see in this text that indicate to you that things are compared to each other?

1. Similar to
2. However
3. Both ... and
4. Likewise

Which words do you see in this text that indicate to you that things are contrasted to each other?

1. However
2. Likewise
3. On the other hand
4. Whereas

Complete the following sentences. Underline the best word in every sentence.

In Europe we use a fork and knife, too/but in Asia you eat with chopsticks.

Too

But

While/However forks are generally easy to use, chopsticks require a great deal of skill.

While

However

Europeans write the date in the format 'day, month, year', Whereas/Both Americans use 'month, day, year'.

Whereas

Both

Most Europeans drive cars with manual gears, While/Less than most Americans have a preference for automatic ones.

While

Less than

European cars are usually built in compact sizes. In contrast/Although, American car manufacturers focus on making larger cars.

In contrast

Although

While 

Both

But

Whereas Just as

Whereas

Both

Whereas

Comparison and contrast

A text or part of a text that uses a structure of comparison and contrast examines the similarities and differences between two or more items, people, events, ideas, etc. In comparison , writers show how ideas, etc. are the same or similar, in contrast authors show the ways in which they are different from each other. Clues are given by signal words, that indicate that one thing is being compared to another, such as too , equally and just like , or contrasted to another, such as on the other hand , whereas and although .

Cause and effect

A text or part of a text that follows a structure of cause and effect discusses one or more events or situations and then explains the effect they have on other events, people, etc. Cause is why something happened and effect is what happened. There can be multiple causes and effects.

Signal words, such as since , consequently and because of will help you recognise this structure.

Problem and solution

A text or part of a text that uses a structure of problem and solution describes a problem and then gives one or more possible solutions. The author can also describe the pros and cons of each solution. Signal words, such as difficulty , solution and answer , will help you recognise such a structure. When you pay attention to them, it will be much easier to answer questions in exams that ask you to identify problems and solutions.

Description

A text or part of a text that follows a structure of description explains a subject, idea, person, place or thing by listing characteristics, features and examples. This text structure is often used to explain the supporting details to a main idea. Clues are given by signal words, such as to begin with , as well as and in addition , that indicate that various things are listed and described.

Homework

Do the reading of chapter 4 

assignments 9 - 18

(vanaf opgave 10)

Thank you!