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

1. Chronological order
2. Order of importance
3. Compare and contrast
4. Cause and effect
You’ll learn to recognize these patterns and some of the reasons why writers use them.

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T
here are many ways to tell a story. Some stories start in the middle and flash backward to the begin-
ning; a few start at the end and tell the story in reverse. But most of the time, stories start at the
beginning. Writers often begin with what happened first and then tell what happened next, and next,
and so on, until the end. When writers tell a story in this order, from beginning to end in the order in which things
happened, they are telling it in chronological order. Chronology is the arrangement of events in the order in which
they occurred.
L E S S O N
Start from the
Beginning:
Chronological
Order
L E S S O N S U M M A R Y
This lesson focuses on one of the simplest structures writers use:
chronological order, or arrangement of events by the order in which they
occured.
6
5 3

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C h r o n o l o g y a n d Tr a n s i t i o n s
Much of what you read is arranged in chronological
order. Newspaper and magazine articles, minutes of
meetings, explanations of procedures, and so on are
usually arranged this way. For example, look at the fol-
lowing paragraph that might be found in a company
newsletter:
This year’s employee award ceremony was a tremen-
dous success. The first award was given to Carlos Fe
for Perfect Attendance. The second award, for Most
Dedicated Employee, went to Jennifer Steele. Then,
our president, Martin Lucas, interrupted the awards
ceremony to announce that he and his wife were
having a baby. When he finished, everyone stood up
for a congratulatory toast. Afterward, the third
award was given to Karen Hunt for Most Inspiring
Employee. Finally, President Lucas ended the cere-
mony by giving everyone a bonus check for $100.
You’ll notice that this paragraph tells what hap-
pened at the ceremony from start to finish. You’ll also
notice that you can tell the order in which things hap-
pened in two ways. First, you can tell by the order of the
sentences themselves—first things first, last things last.
Second, you can tell by the use of transitional words and
phrases, which signal a shift from one idea to the next.
Here is the same paragraph with the transitional words
underlined:
This year’s employee award ceremony was a tremen-
dous success. The first award was given to Carlos Fe
for Perfect Attendance. The second award, for Most
Dedicated Employee, went to Jennifer Steele. Then,
our president, Martin Lucas, interrupted the awards
ceremony to announce that he and his wife were
having a baby. When he finished, everyone stood up
for a congratulatory toast. Afterward, the third
award was given to Karen Hunt for Most Inspiring
Employee. Finally, President Lucas ended the cere-
mony by giving everyone a bonus check for $100.
The underlined words—first, second, then, when,
afterward, third, and finally—are transitional words
that keep these events linked together in chronological
order. Look at how the paragraph sounds without these
words:
This year’s employee award ceremony was a tremen-
dous success. The award was given to Carlos Fe for
Perfect Attendance. The award for Most Dedicated
Employee went to Jennifer Steele. Our president,
Martin Lucas, interrupted the awards ceremony to
announce that he and his wife were having a baby.
He finished; everyone stood up for a congratula-
tory toast. The award was given to Karen Hunt for
Most Inspiring Employee. President Lucas ended
the ceremony by giving everyone a bonus check
for $100.
It doesn’t sound quite as good, does it?