United States History Student Edition

Sequencing Events Historians arrange events in the order in which they occurred. This sequencing helps historians organize information. From the pattern of the data, they can determine how events are related to one another. The connections among these events can help historians identify historical importance and cause-and-effect relationships. In reading or writing history, it is important for you to know how ideas, events, or people come before or follow each other. We make sense of events by placing them in the order in which they happened. When you tell a story to your friends, you describe events in the order in which they occurred. Above all, sequencing is used to clearly tell a story from the beginning, through the middle, and to the end. Certain key words—such as first, next, last, then, before, and after —can help you understand the sequence of a story or a time line of events. sequencing arranging events in order of when they happen main idea the central concept of a text or speech

Finding the Main Idea Throughout your study of this program, you will read about ideas, people, and events. These details are easier to understand and remember when they are connected to one main idea . The main idea is the principal concept on which the other ideas depend for meaning. Identifying and understanding the main idea allows you to grasp the whole story. Follow these steps to find the main idea: 1. Before you begin reading, determine the setting of the article or document: the time, the place, and who the writer is. 2. Read the material and ask, “What is the purpose of this information?” 3. Read the first sentence of the first paragraph. The main idea of a paragraph is often found in the topic sentence. The main idea of a large section of text is often found in a topic paragraph. 4. Identify details that support the main idea. These same basic steps can be followed to find the main idea that a speaker is conveying. Start by identifying the speaker’s purpose. Speakers usually present the main idea at the

To understand complex events, such as the American Revolution, historians must sequence the evidence. This image shows the confrontation between American colonists and British soldiers that came to be called the “Boston Massacre.”

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