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M
OSTI
MPORTANT TOL
EASTI
MPORTANTBoth the most-to-least important and least-to-most important organizational patterns use rank as the orga-nizing principle. But they’re not exactly interchangeable.
Writers will choose one or the other because each of these patterns has a different effect.
Organizing ideas from most important to least important, for example, puts the most essential informa-tion first. This is often the best approach when writers are offering advice or when they want to be sure readers get the essential information right away. A newspaper article is a good example. News reports generally don’t follow chronological order; instead, they begin with the most important information. Writers give us the who, what, when, where, and why information about the event. Here’s an example from a school newspaper article:
Chess Team Wins First Championship!
Yesterday the Oakville High Chess Team won its first state championship in an exciting vic-tory over Winslow High. The team, led by captain Vassil Matic, was losing four matches to three when Magdalena Lukas, a sopho-more, won a decisive game against Winslow High captain Julian Mille. Matic then won the tie-breaker to defeat Winslow and bring home the trophy.
This was only the second time the team qualified for the state championship. Two years ago, the team made it to the state champi-onship for the first time but was eliminated dur-ing the first round of competitions. The chess team was formed in 1994 by former students Ainsley Pace, Mark Waters, and Shane Trombull.
Mr. Trombull is now an advisor for the team.
Notice how this article begins with the most impor-tant information: the chess team’s victory. Chronologi-cally, this was the last event in the series of events described in the article, but here it comes first because it is most important. Next, the article describes the deci-sive moments in the match—the second most impor-tant information. Finally, the article offers some history of the chess club. This information may be interesting, but in terms of the event, it isn’t all that important.
Newspaper articles are organized this way for a rea-son. A newspaper contains so much information that read-ers rarely read an entire article. In fact, newspaper readread-ers will often read only the first few paragraphs of an article and skim—or skip—the rest. Therefore, it’s essential to get the most important information across at the very beginning.
Other texts use this strategy for similar reasons.
They want readers to know right from the start what’s most important. If you are reading a passage about ways to improve your study skills, for example, you’re not likely to read much of the text if you don’t find the first tip or two to be very useful. Besides, writers will want to be sure you get the most important information. The best way to do that is to put it first.
EXERCISE 1
Below is a passage about safety on the Internet. Read it carefully and actively. Then write the answers on the lines that follow.
Net Safety
Though it may seem like cyberspace is a pretty safe place, in reality, the Internet poses some very real dangers for teens. To be safe when you’re online, follow these guidelines. First and foremost, protect your privacy. Never give your real last name, address, or telephone number to anyone. Second, never agree to meet with someone you’ve talked with on the Internet without asking permission from your parents
first. Third, remember that people are not always what they seem. Someone who is very nice to you online could turn out to be some-one eager to hurt you in person. Finally, trust your instincts. If someone uses bad language or mentions things that make you uncomfort-able, don’t respond and log off. If you come across a site where the content makes you uncomfortable, exit it as quickly as possible.
Questions
1. According to this passage, what’s the most impor-tant thing you can do to be safe on the Internet?
2. What is the second most important thing?
3. What is the third most important thing?
4. What is the fourth most important thing?
L
EASTI
MPORTANT TOM
OSTI
MPORTANTSometimes instead of starting with the most important
tant point, writers can also create suspense, since the reader has to wait for the final and most important idea.
USING LEAST-TO-MOST FOR ARGUMENTS TRANSITIONS
Here’s a list of the most common transitions writers apply when using the order of importance organizational pattern. Most of these phrases work for both most-to-least important and least-to-most important patterns:
above all first, second, third more importantly most importantly first and foremost last but not least moreover
–ORDER OF IMPORTANCE–
writers often “save the best for last” because that’s where
“the best” often has the most impact.
In other words, the writer’s purpose for writing helps determine the organizational pattern he or she uses. In turn, the structure influences how you take in and understand what you read.
Take a look at the following student essay, for example. Notice how the writer builds her case, piece-by-piece, saving her strongest and most important point for last. As you read, mark up the text by under-lining her main idea and her key supporting points.
Make Us Volunteers!
There’s been a proposal to add a new requirement to the eighth grade curriculum: 10 hours of vol-unteer work each quarter. Students would not be able to graduate to ninth grade without 40 hours of volunteer work on their records. Some will argue that this is forced volunteerism, and there-fore not volunteerism at all. But I think that’s beside the point. What matters is that students will ben-efit enormously from such a program.
For one thing, volunteer work is a confi-dence booster. When you help someone else, when you make someone else feel good, it makes you feel better about yourself. And who couldn’t benefit from that? Students will go through the year knowing that they are help-ing others and makhelp-ing a difference in their community. They will know that they have the power to make people’s lives better.
More importantly, volunteering will help students become more compassionate and tol-erant. They will see that there are all kinds of people in the world with all kinds of problems.
But underneath those problems, they’re still people just like you and me.
But the most important benefit of this pro-gram is that it will teach students that they have
a responsibility to other people. We have a duty to help others whenever we can. Students will learn that other people are counting on them to meet very real and important needs. They will learn that when they fail to fulfill their responsibilities, they may hurt other human beings. They will learn that when they make a commitment, it is important to honor it.
What is the writer’s main idea? Did you identify it as the idea stated in the last sentence of the first para-graph—that “students will benefit enormously from this program”? Good. Next, did you correctly identify her three supporting ideas? They’re listed below:
■ Volunteering will boost students’ confidence.
■ Volunteering will help students become more compassionate and tolerant.
■ Volunteering will teach students that they have a responsibility to others.
These points are listed from least important to most important. The transitions are our biggest clues to this structure. Here are the transitions in the order in which they’re used:
■ for one thing
■ more importantly
■ but the most important benefit
This structure works well for this argument. The first point is difficult to disagree with; we all know how good it feels to help someone else, and few people would resist this idea. The second point is a little more complicated and controversial. Some readers might be hesitant about working with people they feel are “dif-ferent.” The third point is the one the author thinks is most important, and it’s also perhaps the most
con-troversial. Some people would argue that we are not duty bound to help others. But this point is easier to accept if we’ve already accepted the writer’s previous two points.
EXERCISE 2
Look at the following list of reasons to read more often.
If you were to put these reasons together in a paragraph to convince readers that they should read more, how would you organize the reasons? Rank these reasons first in order of importance and then in the order in which you would present them.
Five Reasons to Read More Often
■ It will improve your vocabulary.
■ It will improve your reading comprehension.
■ It will increase your reading speed.
■ It will broaden your understanding of yourself and others.
■ It will introduce you to new information and new ideas.
Order of Importance to You
1.
2.
3.
4.
4.
5.
EXERCISE 3
MOST-TO-LEAST IMPORTANT
There are many benefits to reading more often. First and foremost, reading more will broaden your under-standing of yourself and of other people. It will also introduce you to new information and ideas. Further-more, it will improve your overall reading compre-hension so you’ll begin to understand more of what you read. In addition, reading more will improve your vocabulary and increase your reading speed.
LEAST-TO-MOST IMPORTANT
Reading more often can benefit you in many ways. First of all, it will increase your reading speed, so that you can read more in less time. Second, it will improve your vocab-ulary. Third, it will improve your overall reading compre-hension, and you’ll understand more of what you read. In addition, reading more will introduce you to new infor-mation and ideas. Most importantly, reading will broaden your understanding of yourself and other people.
Questions
1. Underline and write down the transitional words and phrases in the examples above.
–ORDER OF IMPORTANCE–
L
ESSONS
UMMARYOrder of importance is an organizational strategy you will see often. Writers may move from most important to least important or from least important to most important. The
order writers choose depends upon their purposes. Argu-ments usually run from least-to-most important.Newspaper articles and other factual texts often use the most-to-least approach. This structure helps you see the writer’s pur-pose so you can better understand what you read.
ANSWERS
EXERCISE 1
1. Protect your privacy: Don’t give out your name, address or phone number.
2. Never agree to meet someone you met online without your parents’ permission.
3. Remember that people are not always what they seem.
4. Trust your instincts.
Notice that this passage uses the first, second, third transitions we saw in the last lesson on chronological order. Here, however, these transitions don’t indicate a sequence of doing things; rather, they indicate the rank of these safety suggestions.
EXERCISE 2
In which order did you choose to present your ideas?
Most important to least important? Or least to most?
Either structure will work beautifully with these ideas.
You may want to hit your readers with what’s most
important from the start so that you make sure you catch their attention. Or you may want to save your best ideas for last so that you build up to what’s most important.
Below are two examples of how you might have writ-ten your paragraph. One version uses least-to-most important, the other most-to-least important. Notice the clear topic sentence and strong transitions in both examples.
EXERCISE 3
1. In the most-to-least important paragraph, the transitions are first and foremost, also, further-more, and in addition. In the least-to-most paragraph, the transitions are first of all, second, third, in addition, and most importantly.
2. In both paragraphs, the first sentence is the topic sentence, which expresses the main idea.
Skill Building until Next Time
1. You probably see many lists throughout the day, such as to-do lists and shopping lists. Notice how these lists are organized. Are the items listed by order of importance? If so, are they listed from least to most important or from most to least? If the items are not organized by rank, list them in order of importance.
2. Listen carefully to a commercial on television. Notice how the ideas are presented. If advertisers are trying to convince you of something, how do they organize their ideas? If they are giving advice, are their ideas organized in a different way?
LESSON SUMMARY