the irrational belief in supernatural beings. b. the belief that animals and plants have souls.

When writers write, they generally use one of several basic organizational patterns. These basic patterns help writers organize their ideas effectively. The four most common patterns are: ■ chronological order ■ order of importance ■ comparison and contrast ■ cause and effect C HRONOLOGICAL O RDER When writers use time to organize their ideas, it is called chronological order. They describe events in the order in which they did happen, will happen, or should happen. Much of what you read is organized in this way. Historical texts, instructions and procedures, and essays about personal experiences usually use this structure as the overall organizing principle. The practice passage about bicycles, for example, follows this pat- tern. Passages organized by chronology provide us with lots of clues to help us follow the passage of time. They use transitional words and phrases to guide us through the text. The transitions help us see when things happened and in what order and help us follow along when the passage shifts from one period of time to another. Transitional words and phrases keep events linked together in the proper order. Here is a list of some of the most common chronological transitions: first, second, third, etc. before after next now then when as soon as immediately suddenly soon during while meanwhile later in the meantime at last eventually finally afterward O RDER OF I MPORTANCE This organizational pattern arranges ideas by rank instead of time. That is, the first idea isn’t what happened first; it’s the idea that’s most or least important. Writers can start with the most important idea and then work down the line to the least important. Or they can do the opposite: start with the least important idea and build up to the one that’s most important. Organizing ideas from most important to least important puts the most essential information first. Writ- ers often do this when they are offering advice or when they want to be sure readers get the most important information right away. Newspaper articles, for example, generally use this structure. They begin with the most important information the who, what, when, where, and why about the event so readers don’t have to read the whole article to get those facts. When writers move from least to most important, they save their most important idea or piece of infor- mation for last. Writers often use this approach when they are presenting an argument. That’s because this kind of structure is usually more convincing than a most-to-least organization. The more controversial the argument, the more important this structure. In an argument, you need to build your case piece by piece and – R E A D I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L S – 3 9 win your readers over point by point. If your less important points make sense to the reader, then your more important points will come off stronger. And, as the saying goes, writers often “save the best for last” because that’s where “the best” often has the most impact. In other words, the writer’s purpose helps to determine the structure he or she uses. Transitions are very important for this organizational pattern, too. Here’s a list of the most common transitions writers use with the order of importance structure. Most of these work for both most-to-least important and least-to-most important patterns: first and foremost most importantly more importantly moreover above all first, second, third last but not least finally C OMPARISON AND C ONTRAST When you show how two or more things are similar, you are making a comparison. When you show how two or more things are different, you are contrasting them. This technique gives you a way to classify or judge the items you are analyzing. By placing two or more items side by side, for example, you can see how they meas- ure up against each other. How are they similar or different? And why does it matter? For example, you might say that the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was even better than Star Wars. Both featured warriors with special powers and a love story comparison. But in Crouching Tiger, the fighters relied much more on their physical strength and agility than on powered weapons, which are plentiful in Star Wars contrast. And Crouching Tiger featured female warriors as strong as or even stronger than the male fighters contrast. Whenever an author is comparing and contrasting two or more items, he or she is doing it for a rea- son. There’s something the author wants to point out by putting these two items side by side. For example, we could compare the French Revolution and the American Revolution to show how they both overthrew monarchies to create a free republic. One of the keys to a good comparison and contrast is strong transitions. It’s important to let readers know when you are comparing and when you are contrasting. As a reader, it’s important to watch for these transitions. Here are some words and phrases that show similarity: similarly in the same way likewise like in a like manner just as and also both The following words and phrases, on the other hand, show difference: but on the other hand yet however on the contrary in contrast conversely while unlike – R E A D I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L S – 4 0