Chronological Order in Writing

Chronological order is one of the easiet methods of organization to master. chronos is a Greek word meaning time. Chronological Order therefore, is way of organizing the ideas in paragraph in order of their occurerrence in time.

Chronological order is used for something as simple as a recipe and for something as complex as a history book. In academic writing, chronological order has many uses. One of the primary ways you might use it to write a historical narrative about the subject of term paper. For example, you might review the histry of labour unions before you discuss the current situation.

            However, chronological order is not just for historical narrative, it is also used in business, science, and engineering to explain processes and procedures. For example,chronological order would be used to explain how to take a photograph, how to perform a chemistry experiment, or how to set up an accounting system, Such paragraphs are called "how to" or "process" paragraphs.

            There are two keys to writing a good chronological paragraph:

1. Discuss the events )in narrative) or the steps (in a process) in order in which they occur.

2. Use chronological transition signals to indicate the sequence of events or steps.

            Analize the following model paragraphs for their organization by the time. Circle any words or experissions that indicate time order (first, next, after, that, in 1971, etc) The first model reviews very briefly the history of computers. The second model is an example of a process paaragraph. It explain the process of cloning.

Chronological Order: Narration

The Evolution Of Computer

            In the relatively short span of sixty years,there has been an incredible evolution in the size and capabilities of computer.Today, computer chips smaller than the tip of your fingernail have the same capabilities as the room-sized machines of years ago.The first computer wrere developed around 1945. They were so large that they required special air-conditioned rooms. About  twenty years later, in the 1960s, desk-sized computers were developed. This represented a gigantic advance. Before the end of that same decade, however, a third generation of computer,which used simple integrated circuits and which were even smaller and faster, had appeared. In 1971, the first microprocessor,less thanone square centimeter in size, was developed. Today modern microprocessors contain as many as 10 million microprocessors doubles every eighteen months.

Chronological Order: Process

Cloning Technology

            Background information: in 1997,a lamb born in scotland became instant celebrity. An exact duplicate of her six-year-old mother, Dolly was the first animal cloned from the cells of an adult. Other animals had previously been cloned from the cells of embryos, but Dolly was the first animal to come from an adult.Her birth represented a giant step in cloning Technology.

The cloning of Dolly involved several steps. First, cells that had previously been taken from Dolly's mother were starved for five days, which caused them to stop dividing. This Interruption of the cells' divison cycle made it easier for them to reprogram themselves to start growing a new organism. After five days, the nuclei of these cell were removed and transferred into an unfertilized sheep egg, from which  the natural nucleus had previously been removed. in the next step. the egg was grown in the laboratory for a period of time. Then the egg was implanted into a different sheep, where it grew normally. When the sheep finally gave birth, the lamb was an exact genetic copy, or clone, of the sheep that had provided the transferred nucleus,not of the sheep that provided the egg.

Topic Sentences for Chronological Order

            Notice that the topic sentence of a chronological paragraph in some way indicates the time order. In paragraphs such as the one on computers, phrases such as in the relatively short span of sixty years and evolution give the reader a hint that this is a chronological paragraph.

            In a "how to" or process, paragraph such as the one about cloning technology the process to be described is named in the topicsentence and tells the reader to expect a chronological paragraph.

Transition Signals for Chronological Order

            Transition signals are especially important in a chronological paragraph. You have to very clear about the sequence of events. Did one event happen before, at the same time as, or after another event?

Chronological Transtition signals include the following

keep mind in that any time expression can serve as a chronological transition signal. here are some example:

Later that morning                                 In the next fifteen years,

Twenty-five years ago                            From June through August

In 2002                                                 Before the invention of the Telephone