- [David] Hello, readers.
Let's talk about structure.
When architects and
engineers design a building,
one of the considerations
they have to make
is structural support.
How's this thing gonna stay upright?
How do we make sure it
doesn't blow over in the wind
or collapse in an earthquake?
And so they say, okay,
maybe we'll put reinforcing
steel in the concrete
or put X-braces on the outside
or big ol' pylons in the center.
Well, writers do pretty
much the same thing.
When an author creates
an informational text,
they ask themselves the same question.
How's this thing going to stay upright?
How shall I structure this text?
Because although it's not physical
in the way that a building is physical,
texts have structure.
You can't touch them,
but you can see them.
Now, there are many ways to
structure a piece of writing.
But today, I wanna talk about five,
chronology, compare and
contrast, cause and effect,
problem and solution, and description.
Let's talk about each one in turn,
using the medium of one of
my favorite foods, pizza.
I recognize that's a
really weird-looking pizza.
But you can learn anything.
I'm going to get better at
it before this video is over.
So chronology.
Chronology is events described in order.
Chronos is Greek for time.
So anything that has that
distinctive C-H-R-O-N root
is going to be about time.
Chronicle, chronometer, chronically.
You can suss out if a text is using
a chronological structure
if it's a sequence in a particular order,
or if it's telling a story from history.
Recipes are also chronological, right?
In order to bake the cake properly,
you have to turn the oven on first.
And to that end, you
can generally identify
this text structure by
looking for time words
like first or last or finally.
So a chronological account could be
the history of the origins
of modern day pizza
in 19th century Naples
or a step-by-step recipe
for making pizza dough.
Here's an example of the
chronology of ordering pizza.
This is how you order pizza.
First, look up reviews or ask a neighbor
to find the best pizza near you.
Then call the pizza place
and place your order.
Be sure to give your address.
Next, it's time to wait.
When the pizza finally arrives,
make sure to tip the delivery person.
Compare and contrast, you've
probably heard of this one.
When a text compares two or more ideas,
that's a compare and contrast.
The compare step discusses similarities,
how things are similar.
And then the contrast step discusses
how those things are different.
Look for clue words
like same or different,
both and neither, in contrast,
or on the other hand.
Here's an example.
When talking about pizza,
a long-standing debate is
often between deep-dish
and thin-crust pizza.
One benefit of deep-dish
pizza is how efficient it is.
Because of its thickness,
a 12-inch deep-dish pie
can serve six people.
One drawback is that it
can be quite messy to eat.
Thin-crust pizza is good
because it's less messy
than deep-dish, but it's thin,
so it takes a larger
pizza, or multiple pizzas,
to feed the same number of people
as a deep-dish pizza can.
Cause and effect.
This one does what it
says on the tin, right?
It describes how one idea
or event causes another.
Here's an example.
To celebrate my great report card,
my parents let me order pizza
with all my favorite toppings.
After we ate, we were too
stuffed to do anything else.
Now, what caused us to get pizza?
My great report card.
What was the effect of the pizza?
We were stuffed.
Maybe it was a stuffed pizza.
If you stuff yourself with stuffed pizza,
does that make you more stuffed
than if you stuff yourself
with unstuffed pizza?
You may scoff, but this is the stuff
that keeps me up at night.
Problem and solution.
In this kind of text structure,
the author describes a problem
and then explains how
that problem was solved.
So imagine you want pizza,
but you can't have traditional pizza
because you're a celiac.
You can't have wheat.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Enter the cauliflower crust pizza
made from cooked cauliflower, cheese,
and a variety of gluten-free flours.
All right, so what was the problem?
You can't eat wheat and
pizza dough is made of wheat.
How do you solve that problem?
By making pizza crust out of cauliflower,
which I promise tastes
better than it sounds.
Finally, description.
This is sort of like an encyclopedia entry
that explains basic
information about a topic.
Like an explainer piece
about what pizza is.
I'm going to read this as though
I have never heard of pizza before.
(clears throat)
Pizza, a round flatbread
traditionally served warm,
originated in Naples,
Italy in the 19th century.
This flatbread is generally
baked at very high temperatures,
topped with flavorful tomato sauce
and melted mozzarella
cheese and served in slices.
If you find yourself looking
at an informational text
and you're struggling to figure
out what the structure is,
subtract the specifics.
If you subtract the specifics,
it'll help you think about the structure.
And if it helps, you can
substitute those specific details
about the text with pizza.
Is this silly?
Yeah, of course.
Does it work?
I think it does.
So is the text structured like a recipe
or the history of pizza?
If so, it's chronology.
Is it comparing two kinds of pizza?
Well, then it's a compare and contrast.
Does it explain how a good report card
led to a pizza dinner?
It's cause and effect.
Does it explain a pizza
problem and how it was solved
in a pizza way?
Well, that's a problem-solution structure.
And finally, does it
straightforwardly describe
what a pizza is without
a detailed chronology,
comparison, or problem?
Because if so, that's a description.
Those are only five possible ways
to structure a piece of writing.
They're by no means the only ways.
But identifying these
will give you the tools
to learn even more structures
so that you can better understand
how writers shape ideas.
I hope that this helped.
And I also hope that you want pizza now,
because I certainly do.
You can learn anything, David out.
