Review Transitions Notice how the transitional words and phrases are used
in these paragraphs. Go back to each paragraph and
underline the transitional words and phrases.
Here are the words you should have underlined in
the first paragraph:
first and foremost, also, furthermore, and
in addition. The second paragraph uses different
transitional words and phrases:
first, second, third, in addition, and
most importantly. Main Idea By the way, what is the main idea of the two para-
graphs above? Do you see a topic sentence? Write the
main idea of the paragraphs in this space.
You can probably recognize by now that the first
sentence in each paragraph, “There are many benefits
to reading more often,” is the topic sentence that gov-
erns each paragraph. This sentence is general enough
to encompass each of the different reasons given, and
it makes an assertion about reading—that you should
do it more often.
S u m m a r y Organizing ideas by order of importance is a structure
you will see often. Whether a passage is organized from
most to least important or least to most, this technique
should now be easy for you to recognize.
– O R D E R O F I M P O R TA N C E – 6 5 ■
As you come across lists today, see how they are organized. Are they organized by order of importance?
If so, are the items listed from least to most important or from most to least? If the lists are not organ-
ized hierarchically, try to organize them by their order of importance.
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Create your own “order of importance” paragraph like the one on reasons to read more often. Some
topics you might write about are reasons for a four-day work week, reasons why your career is best,
things you need to do this week, and so forth.
