– START FROM THE BEGINNING: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER –

Practice Passage 3
Read the following paragraph, which describes a local community event.

The International Dinner raised $15,000 to renovate the Berkshire Park Com-
munity Center. Three-hundred and fifty people attended the dinner, which was
held in the ballroom of a local hotel. Tickets were sold in advance for $50 each.
The attendees left the event feeling very good about their community. The Berk-
shire Park Community Center was damaged in a fire six months ago. An ener-
getic committee of eight community members came up with the idea of the
International Dinner to raise funds to repair the damages. The plan was to cel-
ebrate the diversity of the Berkshire Park Neighborhood Association by serving
ethnic food that represents the various cultures in the neighborhood. The com-
mittee also organized a silent auction with prizes donated by local businesses to
take place during the dinner. The committee chairperson talked to a local news-
paper reporter at the dinner and stated that the goal was to raise $10,000. A
follow-up letter to community members thanked everyone for the huge success
of the fundraiser and outlined a schedule for the renovation.

Notice that this paragraph is not arranged in ■ The Community Center was damaged in a fire six
chronological order. Take the ten different events that months ago.
make up the story and rearrange them so that they are ■ A committee of eight community members came
in chronological order. up with the idea of the International Dinner to
Here’s the order of events as they are presented in raise funds for repairs.
the story. ■ The plan was to serve foods that represent the var-
ious cultures in the neighborhood.
■ The International Dinner raised $15,000 to reno- ■ The committee organized a silent auction to take
vate the Berkshire Park Community Center. place during the dinner.
■ Three-hundred and fifty people attended the ■ The chairperson talked to a local newspaper
dinner. reporter stating the goal was to raise $10,000.
■ Tickets were sold for $50 each. ■ A letter to community members thanked everyone
■ The attendees left the event feeling very good and outlined the schedule for renovation.
about their community.

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 – START FROM THE BEGINNING: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER –

Now put the events in chronological order. Write your paragraph, putting the events in
chronological order with transitional phrases, below or
1. on a separate piece of paper.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.
Answers
9. There are, of course, many possible ways of using tran-
sitional words and phrases to put this story in chrono-
10. logical order. One paragraph might look like this:

Now, take these chronologically ordered events The Berkshire Park Community Center was dam-
and make them into a cohesive paragraph. To do this, aged in a fire six months ago. Soon after, a commit-
you need to add transitional words and phrases. Here tee of eight community members came up with the
is a list of transitional words and phrases often used in idea of an International Dinner to raise funds to
chronologically organized passages: repair the damages. The plan was to serve foods that
represent the various cultures in the neighborhood.
first soon
In addition, the committee organized a silent auc-
second after
tion to take place during the dinner. Before the event,
third before
tickets were sold for $50 each. During the dinner, the
next during
committee chairperson talked to a local newspaper
now while
reported and stated that the goal was to raise
then meanwhile
$10,000. Three-hundred and fifty people attended
when in the meantime
the event which raised $15,000. When the attendees
as soon as at last
left the event, they felt very good about their com-
immediately eventually
munity. After the event, a letter was sent to com-
suddenly finally
munity members thanking them for everything
while outlining a schedule for renovation.

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 – START FROM THE BEGINNING: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER –

Practice Passage 4 Of course, the consequences of not following

Chronological order is very important, especially when proper chronological order at work can be much more
it comes to procedures. If you perform the steps out of serious, so it’s important that you strengthen this skill.
chronological order, you won’t get the results you Read the following paragraph, marking it up to help
desire. Just imagine, for example, that you are trying to you keep track of the steps that an employee must fol-
bake a cake. What happens when you do things out of low to get tuition reimbursement.
order? You go without dessert.

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 reimbursement
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.

There are eight separate steps an employee must 4.

take to be reimbursed for college course work. What are
they? List them below in the order in which the
employee must do them. 5.

1.
6.

2.
7.

3.
8.

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 – START FROM THE BEGINNING: CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER –

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.
need approval
g!
Our company will be happy to reimburse you for college courses that enhance before registerin
1 your job performance. Before you register for the course, you must get approval 1st –get supervisor
2 first from your immediate supervisor and then from Human Resources. If you approval
2nd –get HR approval
3 are taking the course for credit, you must receive a C+ or better in the course. If 3rd –take course–
you are not taking it for credit, you must pass the course. After you have com- get C+ or better!
4 pleted the course, you must write a report explaining the content of the course 4th –write report
5th –fill out reimb.
5 and its relevance to your position. Then, you must fill out a reimburse- request
6 ment request. Attach a tuition payment receipt, your report, and a copy of your 6th –attach tuition,
report + grades
7 grades to this request and promptly submit this request to your supervisor. Once
to request
8 your supervisor has approved the request, you can then submit all these forms to 7th –submit to
Human Resources, and you should receive your check within two weeks. supervisor
8th –submit to HR

If you miss a step in this process, you won’t be  Summar y

reimbursed. Thus, it’s critical that you be able to iden-
tify each step and the order in which the steps must be Chronological structure is, of course, a very useful
taken. 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.

Skill Building until Next Time

■ 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.

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 L E S S O N

7 Order of
Importance

LESSON SUMMARY
Continuing your study of the structure of reading material, this lesson
shows you how writers use order of importance—from least to most
important or from most to least important. Understanding this commonly
used structure improves your reading comprehension by helping you
see what’s most important in a piece of writing.

I t’s a scientifically proven fact: People remember most what they learn first and last in a given session. Writ-
ers have instinctively known this for a long time. That’s why many pieces of writing are organized not in
chronological order but by order of importance.
Imagine again that the writer is like an architect. How would this type of writer arrange the rooms? By hier-
archy. A hierarchy is a group of things arranged by rank or order of importance. In this type of organizational pat-
tern, hierarchy, not chronology, determines order. Thus, this architect would lay the rooms out like so: When you
walk in the front door, the first room you encounter would be the president’s office, then the vice president’s, then
the assistant vice president’s, and so on down to the lowest ranking worker. Or, vice versa, the architect may choose
for you to meet the least important employee first, the one with the least power in the company. Then the next,
and the next, until at last, you reach the president.
Likewise, in writing, ideas may be arranged in order of importance. In this pattern, which idea comes first?
Not the one that happened first, but the one that is most, or least, important.

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