2 Text Structure
Learn how informational texts organize ideas, how to recognize five common text structures, and how to explain relationships between ideas when a passage shifts patterns.
What shows
is the way an author arranges information and shows how ideas relate. Recognizing it helps readers identify a text’s main idea, follow its reasoning, and remember important details. Informational texts commonly use five structures.
Five common text structures
connects a topic with details that help readers understand it. It presents features, parts, or qualities. may include “for example,” “such as,” “includes,” and “consists of.”
connects events or steps through time or order. may include “first,” “next,” “then,” “before,” and “finally.”
connects subjects through their similarities and differences. may include “both,” “similarly,” “unlike,” “however,” and “in contrast.”
connects an event with the reason it happened or its consequences. may include “because,” “since,” “therefore,” “as a result,” and “consequently.”
connects a difficulty with a response intended to improve the situation. A text may describe one or more ways to address the difficulty. may include “problem,” “challenge,” “solve,” “one solution,” and “to address this.”
How patterns can combine
are useful clues, but they do not prove a structure by themselves. Look at how the whole passage connects its ideas and how its details are grouped. A text may combine structures, such as explaining a problem and then describing its causes.
For example, a passage explains that heavy rain often runs off paved streets instead of soaking into the ground, and that the runoff can carry dirt into streams. This presents a cause-and-effect relationship. The passage then says a rain garden collects some runoff and allows water to soak into the soil, presenting a problem-and-solution relationship.
Identify and map a text’s structure
To identify a text’s structure:
Ask what the author is mainly doing: describing, ordering, comparing, explaining causes, or addressing a problem.
Notice and how the details are grouped.
State the relationship between the ideas in your own words. For example: “The author explains what caused the change and what happened afterward.”
If the structure shifts, name each pattern and explain how the parts fit together.
A simple outline or graphic organizer can make relationships visible. Use a timeline for sequence, a two-column list for comparison, or linked boxes for causes and effects.
Remember the central idea
is the pattern an author uses to organize and connect ideas. To recognize , sequence, comparison, , or , focus on relationships among the details—not just . Some texts use more than one structure.