Words That Signal a Text's Organizational Structure

If your students are struggling with how to organize their notes to answer their research question(s) or how to make sense of what they're reading, you can better equip your students for either task by increasing their sensitivity to particular words.

• In the case of a research question, students should begin by deciding what type of question they're trying to answer.
• In the case of a reading assignment, students should decide early on how the passage is organized.
• In both cases, students can look for some of the signal words listed below to help them to make their decisions.

Chronological Sequence	Comparison/Contrast	Description
Generalization/Principle	Process/Cause and Effect

Chronological Sequence

after	afterward	as soon as	before
during	finally	first	following
immediately	initally	later	meanwhile
next	not long after	now	on (date)
preceding	second	soon	then
third	today	until	when

Comparison/Contrast

although	as well as	as opposed to	both
but	compared with	different from	either...or
even though	however	instead of	in common
on the other hand	otherwise	similar to	similarly
still	yet

Description

above	across	along	appears to be
as in	behind	below	beside
between	down	in back of	in front of
looks like	near	on top of	onto
outside	over	such as	to the right/left
under

Generalization/Principle

additionally	always	because of	clearly
conclusively	first	for instance	for example
furthermore	generally	however	if...then
in fact	it could be argued that	moreover	most convincing
never	not only...but also	often	second
therefore	third	truly	typically

Process/Cause

accordingly	as a result of	because	begins with
consequently	effects of	finally	first
for this reason	how to	how	if...then
in order to	is caused by	leads/led to	may be due to
next	so that	steps involved	therefore
thus	when...then