U4 Civil War Journal Informational Text

Define

Text structure is the organizational pattern that an author uses to present ideas in a text. Some of the most common text
structures include: sequential, problem and solution, cause and effect, and comparison and contrast.

Sequential: Authors present information about events or steps in a process, in the order in which they take or have taken place.

Problem and Solution: A writer presents a problem or a series of problems, and offers solutions on how to solve them.

Cause and Effect: Authors who specialize in history or science topics often use this structure to explain how or why something
happened.

Comparison and Contrast: Authors use this structure to present information about things that are different but have something
in common, such as two points of view on a subject.

Identification and Application:

●To determine the text structure of an informational text, ask yourself:

○What kind of information is presented? Does the author try to explain how or why something happens or has
happened? This indicates a cause-and-effect text structure.

○Do the events or steps in a process have to take place in a precise or sequential order for them to make sense?

○Are two or more things being compared or contrasted in the text?

○Does the author present a problem that must be solved?

●To begin identifying the structure of a text, analyze the structure of a specific paragraph in detail, including the role of
particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept.

●A nonfiction text can have one overall text structure, or employ several different text structures. For example, a text
that uses a sequential text structure may also include examples of cause-and-effect relationships.

●Evaluate the effectiveness of the text structure. Decide whether it helps to make points clear, interesting, and
convincing.

Model

The text structure an author chooses to organize the information in a nonfiction or informational text can help readers organize and better
understand the facts and details he or she presents. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Louisa May Alcott wrote in her Civil War Journal:

April. [1861] —War declared with the South, and our Concord company went to Washington. A busy time getting them ready, and a sad day
seeing them off, for in a little town like this we all seem like one family in times like these. At the station the scene was very dramatic, as the
brave boys went away perhaps never to come back again.

I’ve often longed to see a war, and now I have my wish. I long to be a man, but as I can’t fight, I will content myself with working for those who
can. ...

September, October. [1862] —… War news bad. Anxious faces, beating heart, and busy
minds.

I like the stir in the air, and long for battle like a warhorse when he smells powder. The blood of the Mays is up!

November. —Thirty years old. Decided to go to Washington as a nurse if I could find a place.

The first entry in the journal gives a date that immediately provides the reader with information about when these events take place. In addition, we
can tell from the phrases “war declared with the South” and “our Concord company went to Washington” that Louisa lives in the North. The town
of Concord is in Massachusetts, so this is likely where she makes her home. When we analyze the third paragraph, the structure of the text
emerges. It is now 17 months later, over a year has passed, and Alcott writes, “war news bad. Anxious faces, beating heart, and busy minds.” She is
using a sequential text structure to explain how current events affected her. In the next journal entry, Alcott provides the month but not the year, so
it is clear that she is writing only one month later. “Thirty years old,” she records in her journal. “Decided to go to Washington as a nurse if I could
find a place.”

Model

Once at the hospital ward outside Washington, D.C., Louisa describes her routine on a typical day:

Mon 4th —I shall record the events of a day as a sample of the days I spend— Up at six, dress by gas light, run through my ward &
fling up the windows though the men grumble & shiver; but the air is bad enough to breed a pestilence & as no notice is taken of our
frequent appeals for better ventilation I must do what I can. Poke up the fire, add blankets, joke, coax, & command, but continue to
open doors & windows as if life depended on it; mine does, & doubtless many another, for a more perfect pestilence-box than this
house I never saw —cold, damp, dirty, full of vile odors from wounds, kitchens, wash rooms, & stables. No competent head, male or
female, to right matters, & a jumble of good, bad, & indifferent nurses, surgeons & attendants to complicate the Chaos still more.

The overall structure here is still sequential order. Alcott provides the date, Monday the 4th, and then supplies the events of her day in
the order in which they occur— “up at six, dress by gaslight, run through my ward.” But embedded in this paragraph is a cause-and-effect
relationship between events, as well as a problem and its possible solution. Louisa flings open doors and windows because the ward is a
“pestilence-box” “full of vile odors,” and this is a possible solution. In this case, both cause-and-effect relationships and a problem and
solution work together to develop and refine a key concept.

Your Turn

Read this section from Civil War Journal to determine its text structure. Then answer the follow-up questions.

At twelve the big bell rings & up comes dinner for the boys who are always ready for it & never entirely satisfied. Soup, meat,
potatoes, & bread is the bill of fare. Charley Thayer the attendant travels up & down the room serving out the rations, saving
little for himself yet always thoughtful of his mates & patient as a woman with their helplessness. When dinner is over some
sleep, many read, & others want letters written. This I like to do for they put in such odd things & express their ideas so comically
I have great fun interiorally while as grave as possible exteriorally. A few of the men word their paragraphs well & make
excellent letters. John’s was the best of all I wrote. The answering of letters from friends after some one has died is the
saddest & hardest duty a nurse has to do.

Supper at five sets every one to running that can run & when that flurry is over all settle down for the evening amusements
which consist of newspapers, gossip, Drs last round, & for such as need them the final doses for the night. At nine the bell rings,
gas is turned down & day nurses go to bed.