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Course: Praxis Core Reading > Unit 1

Lesson 2: Quick guides
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Praxis Core Reading
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Organization | Quick guide

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How does the passage or paragraph make its point?

Organization questions ask you to understand and analyze how a passage works to make an argument:
What is the progression of ideas in the passage?
or
What is the purpose of a specific paragraph?
Examples
  • “Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?”
  • "Which of the following best describes the purpose/function of the second paragraph?"
  • (For paired passages) "Which of the following is used in the development of both passage 1 and passage 2?"

Strategies

When Organization questions ask about the entire passage, it can be helpful to read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Paragraph breaks are natural indicators of a shift in the discussion, so this strategy can help you review how the discussion progresses from one claim or supporting point to the next.
Top Tip: Think about how the author builds the argument— both within each paragraph and from paragraph to paragraph.
Does the author:
  • State a thesis, give evidence, and then address an opposing position?
Or does the author:
  • Present a troublesome situation, then discuss a potential solution?
Or does the author:
  • Present one side of a debate, then another, then argue for a one side or introduce a third point of view?
This kind of “ordering” is what you will see in the choices. Note that the options for these questions won’t track every twist and turn of the passage. They will instead be very broad characterizations of the way the main point is developed. So don’t be concerned if the choice you like best seems to contain very little detail.

Common wrong choice types

  • Wrong order. Tempting wrong choices for organizing information questions might include the right elements of the passage, but in the wrong order. For example, a wrong choice could say that the author’s point of view was stated at the beginning of the passage when it was actually stated at the end.
  • Not quite! Other wrong choices might mischaracterize the role a particular paragraph plays in the passage.
  • Sounds clever, but just wrong. Some choices, while temptingly written, simply don’t reflect the way the author organizes their argument.

Paired passage questions about organization

Paired passage sets may have their own organization questions. Usually, you’ll have to identify a specific strategy used by both passages. Here’s an example:
  • "Which of the following is used in the development of both passage 1 and passage 2?"
Since the right answer will be an approach utilized by both passages, you can eliminate a choice as soon as you see that at least one passage doesn’t use the strategy the choice describes.

Your turn!

Practice these strategies with the example below!
Example
Historical figures such as Christopher Columbus and Noah Webster observed that changes in land cover caused changes in climate. Columbus believed that the presence of forests on the newly discovered islands of the West Indies caused them to have more rainfall than the deforested Azores and Canary Islands. Computer models of the effects of deforestation of tropical islands, analyzed 500 years after Columbus's initial observation, indicate that forested islands should have about three times as much rainfall as do equivalent deforested islands.
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
Choose 1 answer:

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