Explaining Relationships in Texts
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in historical, scientific, or technical texts based on specific information
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain the cause-and-effect relationship between events in a historical text
- Describe how a scientific process involves sequential steps that depend on each other
- Identify how key individuals in a text influenced events or other people
1 · Read
You already know how to connect ideas in a text. Now you will explain the relationship between them. That means telling how one event, step, or person affected another, using details straight from the text.
A text explains that Gutenberg invented a faster printing press. Because books could be made cheaper, more people learned to read. That let new ideas spread quickly across Europe. One person's invention set off a chain of effects.
Some words do the pointing for you. Because, so, as a result, and led to all announce that the writer is linking two things, and they show which one came first. When a question asks how two things relate, find one of these words and read what sits on each side of it. That is the relationship, stated by the text itself rather than guessed at.
Be careful: one thing happening before another, or at the same time, does not prove it caused the other. Look for a real link in the text, like a reason or a result, before you say two events are connected.
Find what happened first, then explain what it caused next: that is the relationship the text is showing you.
More to read
Understanding relationships between people, events, and ideas in a text
Informational texts tell you about people, events, and ideas. These parts can affect each other. A person can make an event happen. An event can lead to another event, or it can spark a brand new idea.
When you notice how these parts connect, the whole text makes more sense. Try these steps.
Step 1: Find the important people, events, and ideas in the text. Ask yourself: who is doing what, and what is happening?
Step 2: Look for how they connect. Ask: who or what caused something to happen? What happened as a result?
Step 3: Explain the relationship in your own words, using details from the text. If a text says a scientist's question led to an experiment, and the experiment led to a discovery, you can explain that whole chain.
People, events, and ideas are like dominoes. When one tips over, it can knock down the next one.
Analyzing how authors connect ideas
Think about your favorite video game. Every piece matters. Every character you meet, every choice you make, and every event you unlock changes how the game plays out. Take away one key mission or one important tool, and the whole game feels different.
Texts work the same way. In a text, people, events, and ideas interact to build meaning. A text might describe a person whose choice caused a big event. It might show how one event led to another, or how a new idea changed what people did next.
When you read, look for these interactions. Ask yourself: what would change if this person, event, or idea were removed? If the answer is a lot, you have found an important piece. Then explain how that piece connects to the others.
Analyzing how authors connect ideas
Have you ever done a connect-the-dots puzzle? At first the dots just look like random specks. But once you start connecting them, the picture appears.
Reading a text works the same way. The people, events, and ideas in a text are the dots. To understand the text, you have to connect them.
In a text, people, events, and ideas connect to build meaning and support the text's central idea. A person might cause an event. An event might lead to a new idea. An idea might change what people do.
As you read, keep asking: how does this part connect to that part? Did one thing cause another? Did one person influence someone else? Each connection you find is another line in the puzzle.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.