Chapter 10: Learning From Organizational
Patterns in Paragraphs
From this chapter, you’ll learn
• how to identify six common patterns of
organization.
• how to decide what’s essential to notes on
those six patterns.
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The Patterns of Organization a
Writer Uses
•
develop naturally as a result of the main idea.
•
are emphasized by writers to make the relationships
between ideas clear to readers, e.g., the emphasis
usually comes via transitions that are associated
with the pattern.
•
provide readers with a structure for organizing
information in long-term memory, e.g., readers can
mentally categorize information into causes and
effects, steps in a process, similarities and
differences, etc.
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© Ulrich Flemming
A Few Words for the Wise
• Writers may stick to one pattern of development, combine two
or three, or dispense altogether with any pre-existing patterns of
organization. The method of development always depends on
what the idea being put forth calls for.
• Sometimes, when students learn about organizational patterns,
they think that maintaining the pattern is more important than
developing their point. It isn’t.
• Writers don’t write cause-and-effect essays. They write essays,
articles, or, indeed, entire books, that may (or may not) use the
cause-and-effect pattern of organization to convey their ideas.
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The Six Patterns of Organization
1. Definition: offers a detailed meaning of a word or phrase.
2. Time Order: Sequence of dates and events: traces the events in
a career or the events preceding a cultural or social change.
Process describes the steps in a sequence to explain how
something functions or occurs in real time. Both require the
author to organize the supporting details according to when
events or steps occur (or occurred) in real time.
3. Simple listing: presents, in any order, characteristics, attitudes,
studies, etc., supporting or explaining a point.
4. Cause and effect: explains how one event led to or produced
another.
5. Comparison and contrast: shows how two topics are similar
or different in order to make a point.
6. Classification: describes the sub-groups that make up some
larger whole.
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© Ulrich Flemming
A Few Words for the Wise
• Patterns of organization in paragraphs don’t always
come in the purest form. Sometimes they are mixed
together in pretty equal measure.
• Much of the time, though, one pattern is primary, or
the most important. That’s the one you want to
identify.
• The primary pattern is used for the majority of
sentences in the passage and is central to explaining
the main idea.
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Which pattern do you think is primary in the following
paragraph? Is it cause and effect or sequence of dates and
events?
• When Elvis Presley, the acknowledged king of rock and roll
died in 1977, he was horribly overweight, addicted to
countless drugs, and subject to fits of rage. Exactly what
caused Presley’s decline is unknown, but many have
speculated that insecurities about his talent may have
tormented him more than most realized. Like actress
Marilyn Monroe, Presley would have liked to be taken
seriously as an actor, but critics treated his attempts at
dramatic roles as a joke. In addition, the entertainer seems
never to have quite recovered from the loss of his mother
in 1958 or his stint in the army, and the two events seem to
have broken his spirit. When he returned to civilian life in
1960 and resumed his career, Presley was a changed man,
and his music had lost its old energy and spark.
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1. Pattern Characteristics: Definition
The topic sentence introduces a key word or
phrase, followed by one or more meanings.
• Often the key word or phrase is in italics or
boldface.
• The paragraph fleshes out the definition by
giving an example of the word in context or
providing some general background.
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1. Definition Pattern: Example
Deinstitutionalization is a mental health policy
that emerged in the 1960s. The policy redirected care of persons with severe mental
disorders from state mental hospitals to
community-based treatment settings. Based
on the policy of deinstitutionalization, many
state hospitals were closed and replaced by
community mental health centers or residential treatment facilities.
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Pattern Pointers for Notes
Make sure you
1. can paraphrase the definition, summing
it up in your own words.
2. remember how the definition is related
to any specific people, events, or dates.
3. understand how the details supplied
relate to the definition.
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2. Pattern Characteristics: Time Order (Dates and
Events)
• The paragraph (1) includes a number of dates and
events comprising someone’s life or career or (2)
traces the events that preceded a particularly
important social change or historical occurrence.
• The pattern is likely to include transitions such as by
1972, after the fall of 1941, in the summer of 2010.
• The events are ordered according to how they
occurred in real time.
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2. Dates and Events Pattern: Example
• Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s life was punctuated by a long list
of personal and professional achievements. Born in Houston, Texas
in 1936, Jordan made history in 1966 when she became the first
African American to serve in the Texas senate since 1883. On
March 21, 1967, she became the first African American to preside
over the state senate. In 1972, Jordan ran for Congress and won.
She gained national prominence during the televised Watergate
proceedings of 1974, when her eloquence impressed a national
audience. In 1976, she became the first African American to give a
keynote address before the Democratic National Convention.
Jordan retired from politics in 1979 due to ill health. She died in
1996.
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Pattern Pointers for Notes
• A series of dates and events is a strong clue to the
presence of this pattern. Make sure an abbreviated
version of the series is recorded in your notes.
• So too are topic sentences like “Creative writing
programs are not a modern invention, college
catalogues indicate their existence starting in 1897
and continuing to the present.” These topic
sentences should be paraphrased in your notes.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
© Ulrich Flemming
Some Words for the Wise
• One or two dates and events shouldn’t suggest to you
that the primary pattern is a sequence of dates and
events.
• Passages that mention several dates and events or
make references to a number of dates and events are
likely to be relying on this method of organization.
• One or two dates and events do not add up to an
overall pattern of development.
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Pattern Characteristics: Time Order (Process)
• The paragraph explains how something functions,
happens, or develops.
• A specific number of individual steps or strategies
are named and described.
• Transitions like first, second, next, and at the end
often introduce the steps or stages.
• The order in which the steps or stages are
presented is based on events in real time.
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2. Process Pattern: Example
• The earliest box camera had four essential
parts—shutter, lens, box, and film—and three
essential steps. When a picture was taken, the
shutter opened, allowing light to enter. Then
the lens, a circular piece of glass, focused the
light so it passed through the box. In the third
and final step, the light-sensitive film at the
back of the box received and recorded the
image.
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Pattern Pointers for Notes
Make sure you
1. can identify and describe the individual steps
or stages.
2. know any specialized vocabulary necessary to
understanding the steps in the process.
3. consider using a flow chart that diagrams the
individual steps, phases, or stages.
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Sample Flow Chart: Box Camera’s Three Steps
Shutter
opens
and
allows
light to
enter.
The lens
focuses
the light
and lets it
pass
through.
Lightsensitive
film at
back
records
image.
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3. Pattern Characteristics: Simple
Listing
• The paragraph identifies or names a number of
specific features, characteristics or examples that
require no specific order of presentation.
• The pattern is likely to include topic sentences with
phrases such as “several key cases,” “a number of
symptoms,” or “several studies.”
• The details give specifics about the cases, symptoms,
or studies, but they require no specific order of
presentation; they can be rearranged to suit the
author.
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3. Simple Listing Pattern: Example
• There are three ways to ruin even the best
friendship. Best friends tell each other secrets
they would be unlikely to tell anyone else. Betray
that confidence, and the friendship can end
overnight. If a best friend’s romance goes down
in flames, don’t date the ex. No matter what
your friend says, he or she will not be happy
about the two of you getting together. Finally, if
your best friend confides in you about a problem,
don’t immediately come up with a solution.
Sometimes friends just want a listener, not a
problem solver.
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Pattern Pointers for Notes
• If the topic sentence announces the number of
items to be listed—“There are three things you
need to do to complete a successful job
interview”—you know right away that you need
to record at least three supporting details.
• Consider using diagrams for passages using the
simple listing pattern. Details that have no
intrinsic, or natural, order are sometimes hard to
remember. Diagramming them can be a memory
booster.
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Diagrams can help you remember by giving you
a visual image to attach to the author’s words.
Betraying a
Friend’s secrets
How to lose a
best friend
Dating the
ex
Always being
a problem
solver
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4. Pattern Characteristics: Comparison and
Contrast
The similarities and/or differences between two
topics are discussed in detail.
• The comparison and contrast pattern has to
have two topics.
• Transitions such as in contrast, similarly,
and however turn up frequently.
• The supporting details describe similarities
and/or differences.
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4. Comparison and Contrast Pattern:
Example
• Men have a harder time adjusting to
widowhood than women do. Although both
sexes suffer profoundly at the loss of a spouse,
men seem to have more problems. They have
difficulty, for instance, managing the household
chores once performed by their wives. They
also have difficulty keeping in touch with old
friends because it was the wife who, in the past,
kept up the couple’s social network.
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Pattern Pointers for Notes
• Don’t get so caught up in the similarities and
differences, you forget what they are there for.
Be sure you understand and record the main
idea they develop.
• Make your notes a visual reflection of the
pattern by putting the similarities and
differences into columns.
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Widowhood is harder on men than
women.
• Men have trouble
running the household.
• Women are used to
maintaining a household.
• Men aren’t used to
keeping in touch with a
circle of former friends.
• Women don’t have
difficulty keeping up
social ties.
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5. Pattern Characteristics: Cause and Effect
Cause and Effect: The paragraph explains how
one event produced or set off another event
or train of events.
• The paragraph is likely to include verbs like
caused, triggered, created and induced.
• It’s also likely to include transitions such as
consequently, as a result, due to and in
response.
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5. Cause-and-Effect Pattern: Example
• In 2001 Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who took part in
the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, was released from prison.
Megrahi’s act had resulted in the death of all 259
people on board, and he had been sentenced to
life. However, because he was suffering from
incurable prostate cancer, the Scottish Judge
Kenny MacAskill decided Megrahi was deserving
of compassionate release. According to MacAskill,
Megrahi’s condition obliged the court to show
mercy, especially since the man would soon be
judged by a “higher power.”
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Pattern Pointers for Notes
• Don’t assume that identifying just one cause and
one effect completes your notes—or your
understanding of a paragraph. Sometimes the
author’s goal is to describe a sequence of causes
and/or effects.
• Keep in mind that causes can produce effects that
turn into causes. Think of it this way: Too much
pollen in the air can cause you to cough a lot.
Coughing, in turn, can produce yet another
effect, in this case, laryngitis or loss of your voice.
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6. Pattern Characteristics: Classification
The topic sentence describes how some larger group
can be broken down into smaller subgroups.
• topic sentences include words like categories and
subgroups.
• topic sentences use verbs like broken down into,
analyzed, or divided.
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6. Classification Pattern: Example
• The animal kingdom is divided up into groups
called phyla (phylum is the singular). Singlecelled animals like amoeba, for instance, belong
to the phylum called Protozoa while sponges
belong to the category labeled Porifera, and
round worms are classified as Nemanthelminthes.
Clams and snails belong to the category called
Mollusca, and insects are grouped under the
heading Arthropoda. And what category are
humans in? Humans, along with fish, birds and
reptiles, belong to the category Chordata.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Pattern Pointers for Notes
• Make sure you know what larger group is being
sub-divided and how many categories emerge as
a result of the division.
• If the categories described are given specific
names, be sure to put the names into your notes.
• When you finish a passage that relies mainly on
the classification pattern, test your understanding
by seeing how well you can name and describe
the individual categories.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
© Ulrich Flemming
Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
You’ve previewed the major
concepts and skills introduced in
Chapter 10. Take this quick quiz
to test your mastery of those
skills and concepts, and you are
ready to read the chapter.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested by each
sentence and explain what it was about the sentence
that guided your choice:
1. Changing a person’s attitude is not easy, but it can
be done and there are several techniques that can
successfully be used to bring about change.
2. As first ladies go, no two were more distinctly
different from one another than Jacqueline
Kennedy and Patricia Nixon.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
Sentence 1 is cause and effect because it
• emphasizes how one thing produces, or brings
about, another.
Sentence 2 is comparison and contrast because it
• introduces two different topics, Jacqueline
Kennedy and Patricia Nixon.
• points out how the two topics differ.
© Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authorization.
Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested by
each sentence:
3. In the corporate world, the term “means-end
analysis” refers to analyzing a task in order to
discover the method of action that would get
you most quickly to your final goal.
4. Depending on the method of division, glaciers
can be grouped into three or four different
categories.
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Finishing Up: Learning From Organizational
Patterns in Paragraphs
Sentence 3 suggests the definition pattern because
• the opening phrase “means-end analysis” is followed by a
restatement of the phrase’s meaning.
• quotation marks (could also be italics or boldface) highlight the
opening phrase.
• the verb “refers” suggests a definition pattern will follow.
Sentence 4 suggests the classification pattern because
• it explains how some larger whole can be sub-divided into
smaller groups.
• combines the words “division,” “categories,” and “grouped” in
the same sentence.
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Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested by
each sentence:
5. Russian politician, Vladimir Putin, has had a long
and generally sinister career.
6. In order to remember new information for more
than a few minutes, the human brain requires
that several steps be completed in the following
order.
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Finishing Up: Learning From Organizational Patterns in
Paragraphs
Sentence 5 suggests a sequence of dates and events pattern
because
•
the topic sentence focuses on Putin’s career.
• it is impossible to discuss a “long career,” even a
sinister one, without discussing the dates and events
that make up the career.
Sentence 6 suggests a process pattern because
• the topic sentence explains how something happens.
• the topic sentence uses the words “several steps be
completed in the following order.”
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Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested
by this sentence:
7. There are a number of specific things you
should not do when preparing to buy a
new or used car.
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Finishing Up: Learning From
Organizational Patterns in Paragraphs
Sentence 7 is simple listing because
• the phrase “a number of specific things”
appears in the topic sentence.
• the order in which those “things” are
explained does not seem important.
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© Ulrich Flemming
Brain Teaser Challenge
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Brain Teaser Challenge
Read the following quotation from Bruce Lee, the
actor who became famous displaying his very real
martial arts abilities in a string of successful films.
In your own words, what does Lee mean to say
about patterns, and do his words apply to the
patterns of organization you just learned to
recognize?
“All fixed set patterns are incapable of
adaptability or pliability.* The truth is
outside of all fixed patterns.”
Pliability: flexibility, capable of changing
or bending
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