Finding main idea 10 ppsx

Like an architect designing a building, a writer must have a blueprint—a plan for how he or she will

organize the passage. So far in this section, we’ve looked at several ways that authors may organize

their information and ideas:

■ Lesson 6: Chronological order. Ideas are arranged in the order in which they occurred (or in the order in

which they should occur).

■ Lesson 7: Order of importance. Ideas are arranged in order of increasing importance (least important idea

to most important idea) or in order of decreasing importance (most important idea to least important idea).

■ Lesson 8: Compare and contrast. Ideas are arranged so that parallel aspects of item A and item B are com￾pared and contrasted either in block style (AAAABBBB) or point-by-point style (ABABABAB).

■ Lesson 9: Cause and effect. Ideas are arranged so that readers can see what event or series of events caused

something to take place or what effect an event or series of events had.

LESSON Being

Structurally

Sound: Putting

It All Together

LESSON SUMMARY

Today’s lesson pulls together what you’ve learned in Lessons 6–9 and

gives you more practice in discerning the structure of a reading

passage.

10

81