Text Structure & Sources

Text Structure and Sources: Follow the Author’s Design

Strong readers do more than collect facts. They notice how an author arranges them and how one source relates to another. Structure reveals sequence, comparison, cause and effect, or problem and solution. Source questions ask: Who created this information? What evidence does it offer? Does another source confirm, qualify, or contradict it?

Identify the relationship among ideas, then test it against the evidence. Signal words are clues, not conclusions.

Concept Review: Common Text Structures

• Sequence or chronology: presents steps or events in order. Signals may include first, next, after, and dates.
• Cause and effect: explains why something happened or what resulted. Look for because, therefore, led to, and stated links between conditions and outcomes.
• Compare and contrast: shows similarities and differences. Signals include similarly, unlike, however, and whereas.
• Problem and solution: identifies a difficulty and proposes or evaluates a response. A passage may include several causes, but its main design centers on the response to the problem.
• Description: develops a subject through features, examples, or details without emphasizing another relationship.
• Claim and support: states a position and supplies reasons, examples, or data intended to justify it.

Many passages blend structures. Choose the structure that organizes the passage as a whole, not the structure of one sentence.

Example: Reconstruct the Actual Sequence

Before the tutoring room opened in August, staff installed new tables in July. They had approved the room’s plan in March after collecting student suggestions in February.

Actual order: February suggestions → March approval → July installation → August opening.

1. Mark every time clue. The months provide fixed points, while before and after show relationships.
2. Reorder the events by time. The first event mentioned is not automatically the earliest event.
3. Check each link. Suggestions came before approval; installation came before opening.

The common trap is following sentence order rather than chronological order. A sequence question tests when events happened, not where the author placed them.

Source Basics

A primary source is firsthand or original evidence, such as an interview, laboratory record, survey response, diary, speech, or raw data set. A secondary source explains, analyzes, or summarizes primary evidence. A later news report about a study is secondary; the study report and its recorded results are primary to that research.

Primary does not automatically mean accurate, and secondary does not automatically mean weak. Evaluate each source for relevance, expertise, date, method, sample, possible bias, and consistency with other evidence. When two sources differ, describe the difference precisely. One may confirm a claim, qualify it by adding a limit, or contradict it with incompatible information.

Example: Follow Directions and Conditions

To reserve a practice room, choose an available time and submit the request. Groups larger than five must receive staff approval before submitting. Wait for a confirmation message before entering the room. A reservation may be canceled online until three hours before it begins.

Question: What must a group of seven do before submitting its request?

Answer: Receive staff approval.

1. Identify the condition. The group has seven members, which is larger than five.
2. Apply only the matching rule. Large groups need approval.
3. Notice the timing word. Approval must happen before submission, while confirmation comes after submission and before entry.

This example uses sequence plus a condition. Replacing the written steps with what seems more convenient would produce an unsupported answer.

Original Source Set

Source A: Entry from a clinic coordinator’s pilot log

For several months, patients who worked daytime shifts reported difficulty attending follow-up visits. In April, the clinic began offering appointments until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Staff posted the new hours on reminder cards and mentioned them during checkout. By the end of June, fewer scheduled patients were missing visits. Several patients praised the later hours, although two nurses noted that reminder calls also became more consistent during the pilot.

Source B: Clinic scheduling records

Month   Evening visits offered   Missed-visit rate
March   No                       18%
April   Yes                      16%
May     Yes                      13%
June    Yes                      11%

Source C: Community newsletter published in July

The neighborhood clinic solved its missed-appointment problem by staying open later twice each week.

Worked Example

Question 1: What structure best organizes Source A?

Answer: Problem and solution. The opening identifies an access problem, the middle describes the clinic’s response, and the ending evaluates the result. Chronological details are present, but they support the larger problem-solution design.

Question 2: How does Source B relate to Source A?

Answer: It confirms that the missed-visit rate decreased after evening visits began. However, it does not prove that evening hours alone caused the decrease. Source A adds an important qualification: reminder calls also became more consistent.

Question 3: Which source overstates the available evidence?

Answer: Source C. The word solved is too absolute because 11% of visits were still missed. It also assigns one cause even though the pilot changed both scheduling and reminder practices.

Guided Activity: Use the SCOPE Routine

1. S — Survey: Read the title, source label, date, headings, and data labels before interpreting details.
2. C — Connect: State the dominant relationship among ideas: order, cause, comparison, problem and solution, description, or claim and support.
3. O — Observe evidence: Mark the exact sentence, number, or example supporting your interpretation.
4. P — Place the source: Decide whether it is primary or secondary and what perspective or method shaped it.
5. E — Evaluate together: Ask whether the sources confirm, qualify, or contradict one another.

Apply SCOPE to the source set. Surveying reveals dates and labels. Connecting identifies problem and solution in Source A. Observing finds the decline from 18% to 11% in Source B. Placing distinguishes the coordinator’s firsthand log and original records from the later newsletter summary. Evaluating shows that the records support improvement, while the log limits a single-cause conclusion.

Common Misconception

Misconception: A signal word always identifies the structure, and a primary source is always the best source.

Correction: Signal words are clues, not commands. The word because may appear inside a passage mainly organized as problem and solution. Likewise, a firsthand account may be narrow, emotional, or mistaken. Match the source to the question. A diary may be ideal for studying one person’s experience, while a well-designed review may be stronger for describing a broad pattern.

Knowledge Check

1. A paragraph explains how handwashing removes microbes, then states that infection risk decreases as a result. What is the dominant structure?

Answer: Cause and effect. The paragraph links an action to an outcome; it is not merely listing two facts.

2. A historian quotes a nurse’s 1918 diary and then explains how the entry reflects hospital conditions of that period. Which item is the primary source?

Answer: The diary. It is firsthand evidence created during the period. The historian’s explanation is secondary analysis.

3. A report says participation increased every week. A chart shows 40, 46, 44, and 51 participants over four weeks. How does the chart relate to the report?

Answer: It contradicts the claim that participation increased every week because attendance fell from 46 to 44 in week three. The overall trend rises, but the exact claim is false.

4. An article claims a new study method improves scores. The study included six volunteers who already earned high grades. What is the most important limitation?

Answer: The small, unrepresentative sample limits how broadly the result can be applied. The finding may describe those volunteers without establishing the same effect for all students.

Independent Practice

A school library noticed that many students returned research books late. The librarian first sent general email reminders, but late returns changed little. Next, the library tested personalized reminders that listed each title and due date. During the four-week trial, the percentage of books returned on time rose from 68% to 82%. The librarian recommended a longer trial because the test occurred during a month with few major assignments.

Reminder survey, 60 student responses
Personalized message was helpful: 45
General message was helpful:      9
Neither message was helpful:      6

1. Name the passage’s dominant structure and cite two details that reveal it.
2. Decide whether the survey results confirm, qualify, or contradict the passage.
3. Identify one limit on the conclusion and explain why it matters.
4. Write one sentence that accurately synthesizes both sources without claiming more than the evidence supports.

Before checking your work, underline the evidence for every statement. A defensible answer should reflect both the improvement and the limits of a short trial and a 60-person survey.