Outcome: Logic and Structure

Identify Logic and Structure in Texts

Photo of stone path pavers. Most of them are laid out orderly, but a central cluster are in disarray, with several missing.Human beings love order, and we will try to impose order in almost every situation.  That includes reading.  Clearly, most reading relies on understanding words in the order they appear in a sentence.  Even beyond that, we anticipate patterns and shapes that particular types of writing will take, and we build expectations based on the first few sentences that we read.

This section will help you understand what you can learn from a piece of reading based on the shape it takes, in addition to what the words themselves convey.

What You Will Learn to Do

  • identify patterns of logical organization in texts
  • identify basic features of rhetorical patterns (narrative, comparison, definition, etc.)
  • identify logical structures in argument
  • identify logical fallacies

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