Reading Comprehension Success in 20 Minutes a Day, 3rd Edition

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If you marked up your paragraph, you should easily see the different steps. Here’s how you might have marked
it up. The transitional words and phrases are highlighted in bold.
–
S TA R T F R O M T H E B E G I N N I N G : C H R O N O L O G I C A L O R D E R
–
5 9
Our company will be happy to reimburse you for college courses that enhance
your job performance. Before you register for the course, you must get approval
first from your immediate supervisor and then from Human Resources. If you
are taking the course for credit, you must receive a C+ or better in the course. If
you are not taking it for credit, you must pass the course. After you have com-
pleted the course, you must write a report explaining the content of the course
and its relevance to your position. Then, you must fill out a reimburse-
ment request. Attach a tuition payment receipt, your report, and a copy of your
grades to this request and promptly submit this request to your supervisor. Once
your supervisor has approved the request, you can then submit all these forms to
Human Resources, and you should receive your check within two weeks.
If you miss a step in this process, you won’t be
reimbursed. Thus, it’s critical that you be able to iden-
tify each step and the order in which the steps must be
taken.

S u m m a r y
Chronological structure is, of course, a very useful
organizational pattern. Events happen in a certain
order, so writers often present them in that order. Keep
an eye out for the transitional words and phrases that
signal this type of organization.
need approval
before registering!
1
st
–get supervisor
approval
2
nd
–get HR approval
3
rd
–take course–
get C+ or better!
4
th
–write report
5
th
–fill out reimb.
request
6
th
–attach tuition,
report + grades
to request
7
th
–submit to 
supervisor
8
th
–submit to HR
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
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As you think about things today, try to organize them chronologically. If you think back to something
that happened over the weekend, for example, think about it in the order it happened: First ____, then
_______, suddenly, ______, and so on.
■
As you read about events in the newspaper or in other places, put the different pieces of each event
in chronological order, as you did with the story about the International Dinner.