1.4 Paragraph structure

This is one technique which you can use to identify the correct sequence – and is especially useful in CAT. where you do not have options. If you can identify the structure of the paragraph, you can identify the correct sequence. Try to understand the function of each sentence from some of the following examples:

1) Introducing an concept, idea or hypothesis
2) Explaining a concept, idea or hypothesis
3) Supporting/contradicting an idea or hypothesis with examples
4) Analysing/debating a problem or a hypothesis
5) Providing examples for a general observation
6) Narrating an event
7) Re-emphasising or re-stating a hypothesis
8) Concluding the topic

By analysing the function of each sentence, you can identify its place in the sequence. We have already discussed some common structures while identifying the first sentence.

1.4.1 Generic observation to specific example

For instance,
The volume of water that breaks off Antarctica as icebergs each year is greater than the total global consumption of freshwater. This is pure freshwater, effectively wasted as it melts into the sea and contributes to rising sea levels. This untapped flow of water has enticed scientists and entrepreneurs for over a century. There were 19th-Century schemes to deliver by steam-boat to India, and to supply breweries in Chile. In the 1940s, John Isaacs of the Scripps Oceanographic Institute proposed towing an iceberg to San Diego to quench a Californian drought. In the 1970s, Saudi Prince Mohamed Al-Faisal wanted to tow an Antarctic iceberg across the equator to Saudi Arabia, and funded two international conferences on the subject. The EU received proposals in the 2010s to tow an iceberg from Newfoundland to the Canary Islands.

As you can see, the author is talking about the Antarctic water flow, mentioning the interest of scientists and entrepreneurs. This sentence is then buffered with multiple examples of different countries. In such paragraphs, we can easily understand the sequence if there are specific examples.

However, make sure to differentiate between an observation and a conclusion, as the conclusion will come in at the end. We will discuss this type of paragraph as well.

Example 20

Read the following statements and arrange the four statements in a logical sequence.
[CAT 2003]

A. A few months ago I went to Princeton University to see what the young people who are going to be running our country in a few decades are like.
B. I would go to sleep in my hotel room around midnight each night, and when I awoke, my mailbox would be full of replies sent at 1:15 a.m., 2:59 a.m., 3:23 a.m.
C. One senior told me that she went to bed around two and woke up each morning at seven; she could afford that much rest because she had learned to supplement her full day of work by studying in her sleep.
D. Faculty members gave me the names of a few dozen articulate students, and I sent them emails, inviting them out to lunch or dinner in small groups.
E. As she was falling asleep she would recite a math problem or a paper topic to herself; she would then sometimes dream about it, and when she woke up, the problem might be solved.

(1) DABCE (2) DACEB (3) ADBCE (4) AECBD

Solution

We can see that this paragraph describes the habits of Princeton University students. We can infer that statement A is the beginning sentence, which describes the author's intent. This is also supported by the fact that the other sentences describe specific instances of University students. These are likely to come after statement A.

Let us identify sequences. We can see that the author talks about emailing people in statement D, and the responses of these people in statement B. Therefore, DB is likely to be a sequence.

Similarly, we can infer that CE is another sequence, because a student mentions that she studies while sleeping in statement C and describes how she does it in statement E.

The only option which begins with A and has both DB and CE as sequences is option (3), so we can select it as the correct choice.

Answer: (3) ADBCE

1.4.2 Hypothesis & conclusion

Similarly, you will find sentences which introduce an idea or a hypothesis, provide data points or examples to support it and then have a conclusion supporting the original hypothesis. If there are more than one data points, you can use grammar or keywords to identify the sequence (e.g., with words such firstly, secondly, additionally etc.). Let us consider some examples:

For instance,
Neanderthals may not have been that different from us, after all. New evidence reveals that they created the world's oldest known cave paintings and even wore seashells as body ornaments. Both behaviours suggest that they thought symbolically and had an artistic sensibility like modern humans. The new findings of symbolic thinking show that Neanderthals and modern humans were cognitively indistinguishable.

This paragraph starts with a hypothesis (similarity of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens), provides evidence for this and then concludes by confirming the hypothesis. Note the different between the first and last sentence. You will need to read such sentences carefully to identify which ones are placed in the beginning and which ones are conclusive and placed to the end.

Example 21

Read the following statements and arrange the four statements in a logical sequence.

A. Blockchain is moving beyond cryptocurrency, and it’s worth paying attention — especially since successful prototypes show that blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology, will be transformative.
B. It will also augment other advanced technologies – for example, supercharging both artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
C. In fact, blockchain has the potential to fundamentally change how we share information, buy and sell things, interact with government, prove our identity, and even verify the authenticity of everything—from the food we eat to the medicine we take to who we say we are.
D. When you consider moving from the identity of mans to the identity of companies to connected devices to bots, the possibilities become truly endless.

Solution

This paragraph speaks about the impact of Blockchain. Statement A introduces the topic, explaining that blockchain has transformative benefits. The author explains how blockchain has become interesting on its own, not merely because it supported cryptocurrencies.

Statements B and C support the author's hypothesis (transformative impact of blockchain beyond cryptocurrency). The sequence is CB and not BC, because of the word also in statement B.

Statement D is an appropriate conclusion, explaining that the uses of blockchain are practically endless. Note how statement D is a conclusion for the hypothesis in statement A.

Therefore, ACBD is the correct sequence.

Answer: ACBD

1.4.3 Premise & explanation This is similar to the structure above, except that the author might expand a premise instead of showcasing data to prove a hypothesis. For instance, the author might add context or information to help us understand the hypothesis in detail. Such structures are more common in scientific style of writing, whereas the earlier structure is found in analytical, statistical or narrative styles.

For instance, The Syrian civil war, which began almost seven years ago, is a seemingly intractable regional morass that has only become more dangerous as global powers have been drawn into the conflict and are increasingly at risk of clashing. Iran, Turkey, Russia, the US, the militant group Hezbollah and Persian Gulf nations are among the entities on the ground, either with their own forces or through proxies. Efforts to de-escalate the war or spare civilians have consistently fizzled.

This paragraph has a hypothesis about the Syrian civil war, and then sets up explaining the same.

Example 22

Read the following statements and arrange the four statements in a logical sequence.
[XAT 2009]

A. In the concept, universality, particularity, and individuality are understood as being immediately identical to each other.
B. As immediately identical, these “moments of the concept” cannot be separated.
C. This means that they must be thought of as a single unity, that none of the three can be understood apart from the others, since in the concept their identity is posted, each of its moments can only be grasped immediately on the basis of and together with the others.
D. The interrelation of universality, particularity, and individuality is otherwise in judgement.

(1) ABCD
(2) CBDA
(3) DABC
(4) BCAD
(5) BCDA

Solution

We can easily identify statement A as the first sentence, as it introduces the concepts universality, particularity, and individuality. Statement B should follow statement A, as it continues with the theme of these concepts being immediately identical. Statement C then leads on from this by introducing an inference based on this identical nature.

After noting ABC as the logical sequence with statement A as the first sentence, we can identify ABCD as the correct sequence and option (1) as the correct choice.

Answer: (1) ABCD

1.4.4 Reiteration

Reiteration occurs when one sentence emphasises or establishes another, in the following ways:

(1) The first sentence defines a concept and the second simplifies it.
(2) The first sentence explains a concept and the second provides an example.
(3) The first sentence provides a hypothesis and the second supports it with a definition or an example.

For instance,
Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims.

As you can see, the second sentence reiterates and elaborates the message conveyed in the first. Similarly, the last two sentences are also conveying the same meaning. You will sometimes find this – a sentence which repeats or emphasises another. In such cases, these two sentences will typically be in a sequence.

Example 23

Read the following statements and arrange the three statements in a logical sequence.

1. Bright, colourful cotton from India; porcelain cups from China; sugar, coffee, and cocoa from the Caribbean and Latin America; curtains and carpets, the tea party and coffeehouses, urban arcades, pleasure gardens, cinemas, and department stores—all of these depended on the joint movement of goods, people, and tastes.

2. The imperial trade in exotic goods, the lure of novelty and fashion, the expansion of comfort and convenience, and our accumulation and ever-faster replacement of possessions have been the result of a dynamic exchange between the local and global, the home and the city, public and private.

3. What makes the coronavirus so disruptive is not so much that it will take a few thousand dollars out of the pocket of the average customer this year; rather, it’s shaking the foundations on which modern consumer culture has been built over the last 500 years.

Solution

This paragraph speaks about our traditions of consumerism, and how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted that. The premise (context) is made clear in statement 3, which speaks about how the pandemic is disrupting modern consumer culture.

Statements 1 and 2 are explaining this consumerist culture in more detail. We can infer that statement 2 will come before statement 1, as statement 2 speaks about the trade of exotic goods, and statement 1 gives examples (cotton, porcelain, cocoa, tea, etc.). Statement 1 is reiterating the point made in the latter part of statement 2 with detailed examples.

Note that the author is speaking of these products as exotic from the perspective of the last 500 years, it's only recently that we have had access to products from around the world.

Therefore, we can select 321 as the sequence.

Answer: 321