Text Structure

What text structure would an author use when writing about an endangered species and how we can save it from extinction?

• Cause and Effect

• Compare and Contrast

• Description

• Problem and Solution

What text structure would an author use when informing the reader about dolphins?

• Compare and Contrast

• Description

• Chronological Order/ Sequence

• Problem and Solution

What text structure would an author use when explaining the differences between four types of trees?

• Cause and Effect

• Compare and Contrast

• Chronological Order/ Sequence

• Problem and Solution

In a text with a sequence text structure, the author

• describes a topic and its characteristics.

• tells about events in the order they happened.

• explains how things are similar and different.

• describes a problem and then explains how someone solved it.

In a text with a cause and effect text structure, the author

• explains something that happened and the reasons why.

• tells about events in the order they happened.

• explains how things are similar and different.

• describes a problem and then explains how someone solved it.

The foundation of every pizza is the crust, and good crust comes from good dough.  You might be surprised to learn that pizza dough is made from nothing more than flour, water, yeast, olive oil, salt, and sometimes sugar.  Start by adding your yeast packet to a cup of warm water.  Let the yeast activate, and then add two cups of flour, two tablespoons of olive oil, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt.  Mix all of that together and wait half an hour for the dough to rise.  Now you’re ready to roll it out!

• Problem/Solution
• Descriptive
• Sequence
• Cause/Effect

Cooking the perfect pizza at home can be quite a challenge.  You may find that it’s difficult to get your oven to the right temperature.  If the oven is too hot the crust will burn, become hard, and taste bad.  If your oven isn’t hot enough, the crust may get soggy.  Even at the perfect temperature, extra moisture from your ingredients may prevent the bottom of the crust from fully cooking, but don’t let oven temperature stop you from building the pizza of your dreams.  Get yourself a pizza stone.  A pizza stone will get very hot when preheated and will allow your crust to fully cook without burning it.  Then you can pile the ingredients on your pizza and have a crispy crust that isn’t burned.  That’s the way to go.

• Descriptive
• Problem/Solution
• Cause/Effect
• Sequence

Pizza is often viewed as a junk food, and it is true that some pizzas are high in salt, fat, and calories, but there may also be some benefit to eating pizza.  Some studies have found that lycopene, an antioxidant that exists in tomato products that are often used in pizza, may prevent some forms of cancer.  Dr. Silvano Gallus, of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmaceutical Research in Milan, studied the eating habits of people who developed cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and colon.  He concluded that people who ate pizza at least once a week had significantly less chance of developing these cancers.  Here’s to your health.

• Cause/Effect
• Problem/Solution
• Sequence
• Descriptive

 If you ask me, the perfect pizza has a thin crust, but not too thin.  Even though I’m from Chicago, I prefer the New York style crust.  Your perfect pizza might have tomato sauce on it, but mine has pesto on top of the crust.  On the pesto I’d like to see lots of cheese: a full layer of shredded mozzarella and Romano cheese, and on top of the shredded mozzarella, I’d like to see some slices of fresh mozzarella.  Now you might think I’m crazy for this one, but I’d really like to see some goat cheese in the crust.  To top it all off, I’d like to see it polka-dotted with pepperoni slices.  Now that’s what I call a pizza pie.     

• Sequence
• Problem/Solution
• Cause/Effect
• Descriptive

 Pizza is so old that its origins are not quite clear to historians, but the word pizza comes from the Latin verb pinsere, meaning to press.  It may also be related to the Greek word pitta.  In any event the word “pizza” was first documented in Italy in 997 AD.  Whatever they were eating back then, however, was quite different from the pizza that we know today.  Pizza as we know it could not really have been invented until sometime during the 16^th century, when tomatoes were brought to Europe from America.  This was big, but in my opinion the greatest development in the history of pizza occurred in 1905, when pizza was first sold in America.  The rest, as they say, is history.  

• Cause/Effect
• Problem/Solution
• Sequence
• Descriptive