NBI: Organizing information

A paragraph is a group of related sentences that develop an idea. In nearly every paragraph, there is one idea that is more important than all the others. The main idea of the paragraph is usually found at the beginning.

Sample paragraph 1:

All computers, whether large or small, have the same basic capabilities. They have circuits for performing' arithmetic operations. They all have a way of communicating with the person(s) using them. They also have circuits for making decisions.

All main idea sentences have a topic and say something about the topic. In some of your reading, finding main ideas may serve your needs but, in much I of your studying, you need to understand details. It is sometimes more difficult to understand details than main ideas. You will find it helpful if you think of details as growing out of the main idea.

A major detail often has minor details growing out of it. These minor details tell more about a major detail, just as major details tell more about a main idea. In studying, you often find a paragraph that has many small details that you must understand and remember. Breaking up a paragraph of this kind into its three components: the main idea, major details, and minor details will help you to understand and remember what it is about.

Sample paragraph 2:

it is the incredible speed of computers, along with their memory capacity, which makes them so useful and valuable. Computers can solve problems in a fraction of the time it takes men. For this reason, businesses use them to keep their accounts, and airline, railway, and bus companies use them to control ticket sales. As for memory, modem computers can store information with high accuracy and reliability. A computer can put data into its memory and retrieve It again in a few millionths of a second. It also has a storage capacity for as many as a million items

If you were to organize this paragraph into its three components, it would look like below:

 

Main idea

It is the incredible speed of computers, along with their memory

capacity, which makes them so useful and valuable.

Computers can solve

Modern computers

Major  details

problems much faster than

can store information

humans .

with high accuracy

and reliability.

Businesses

Transport

A

It also has

use them to

companies

computer

a storage

keep

use them to

can put

eapacity,

accounts.

keep of

data into its

for as many

ticket sales.

memory

track as a

Minor details

and

million

retrieve it

items.

again in a

few

mil Months

Of of of a

second.

In making a block diagram you don't have to write every word in the main idea sentence or in each of the detail sentences.

Task 2.3. Practice finding the main idea, major details, and minors by completing the block diagram after reading the following paragraph:

The computer has changed the production of copy in the newspaper industry. There are three steps involved in the process; input, correction, and output. First, the computer numbers each story, counts words, end gives a listing of the length of each story. Then, a page is made up, adveitisements are placed in, the copy is shifted or deleted, end corrections are made. Finally, the computer hyphenates words, end the result of all this is a newspaper page.

  

The computer has changed the production of copy in the newspaper industry

Main idea      

Major details

Minor details

 

Task 2.4. Practice finding the main idea, major details, and minors by completing the diagram after reading the following paragraph..

Railway companies use large computer systems to control ticket reservations and to give immediate information on the status of their trains. The computer system is connected by private telephone lines to terminals in major train stations, and ticket reservations for customers are made through these phone lines. The passenger's name, type of accommodation, and the train schedule is put into the computer's memory. On a typical day, a railway's computer system gets thousands of telephone calls about reservations, space on other railways, and requests for arrivals and departures. A big advantage of the railway computer ticket reservation system is its rapidity because a cancelled booking can be sold anywhere in the system just a few seconds later. Railway computer systems are not used for reservations alone. They are used for a variety of other jobs including train schedules, planning, freight and cargo loading, meal.

. Mam idea

Major details

 

Minor details