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Objective:

In this lesson, you will learn how to recognize and use extended chronological and spatial order and transitions in essays.

Before You Begin

In the Paragraphs 5 lesson, you practiced using chronological order, spatial order, and transitions in paragraphs. These techniques may also be used in longer essays.

Without order, nearly everything is meaningless. There is order in the universe, in our lives, in our schools, and in the workplace. Without order, there would be chaos everywhere.

Think about it! Even when your locker is not in order, you have a hard time finding things. What would it be like if every part of your life was in disorder? It probably wouldn't be very enjoyable. The same thing applies to writing. Without order, writing is also meaningless.

Topics must be arranged so that the reader can follow a smooth, flowing chain of thoughts.

Organizing Writing

If the reader cannot follow and understand what you write, writing is useless. Remember that the structure (order or how you write) influences the content (subject matter or what you write). The opposite is also true. In other words, the content (subject matter or what you write) influences the structure (order or how you write). Structure affects content, and content affects structure. As a result, the arrangement of topics is very important.

Several patterns can be used to maintain order in your writing, two of which are extended order and transitions. Underlying all writing is logical order or good common sense order. Whatever the type of writing, it should make sense and, therefore, must be arranged in a logical or sensible way. Chronological and spatial order are two types of order that may be used in paragraphs and essays.

Chronological Order

Writing about events in the order in which they occur is chronological order. When you think about your daily schedule, an event that has occurred in the past, or the steps in a process, you often think in chronological order. Events can be arranged from past to present or from what happens first to what happens last. Most narrative writing is arranged in chronological order, because it relates an action or event in the order in which it happened. Since so much of our lives revolves around time, readers can easily identify with and follow it. If you were writing an essay using chronological order, one or more of the body paragraphs would be written in chronological order.

Spatial Order

A second way to organize information in an essay is by using spatial order. With this method, the description is organized according to the arrangement of people, places, and things as they appear in space. The word "spatial" is derived from the word "space." If you were describing your room or your favorite vacation spot, you would describe the position of details in the scene, and therefore, it would be written in spatial order. In using spatial order, you begin in one place and end in another. You may describe the scene from left to right, inside to outside, or

from top to bottom. If you were writing an essay using spatial order, one or more of the body paragraphs would be written in spatial order.

Transitions

Another method that may be used to achieve order is to use linking words and phrases called transitions. Transitions help to maintain the smooth flow of ideas between sentences in a paragraph and between paragraphs in an essay. Transitional words and phrases create links between thoughts and help the reader tie ideas together and keep moving in the right direction.

In other words, they are the glue that holds a paragraph or an essay together.

Transitional Words

Some common transitional words and phrases include:

also

on the other hand

however

and

but

finally

first

later

next

in conclusion

later

now

then

for example

Even the best writing is weak if it is not properly connected. Transitions enable the reader to follow the train of thought by seeing the connections. Remember that the reader must be able to follow your writing easily. You can make your writing easy to follow by using chronological order, spatial order, and transitions.

Assignment #1 for Your Student Writing Portfolio:

Write the paragraph you wrote in Paragraphs 5 using chronological order. Revise and edit that paragraph, improving your use of order and transitions.

Begin writing here:

Assignment #2 for Your Student Writing Portfolio:

Copy the paragraph you wrote in Paragraphs 5 using spatial order. Revise and edit that paragraph, improving your use of order and transitions.

Begin writing here:

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