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C. Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts · Reading Like a Critic: Understanding and Responding to Texts

Text Patterns and Features: Compare and Contrast, Footnotes and Copyright Information

C1.3 A3.1About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can identify text patterns, especially compare and contrast in an expository essay, and the signal words that show them.
  • I can compare how different text forms, including cultural texts, use patterns and features.
  • I can explain what footnotes and copyright information tell a reader.
  • I can evaluate how important a pattern or feature is for helping readers, listeners and viewers understand meaning.

Words to know

text pattern
The way ideas in a text are organized: chronological, cause and effect, problem and solution, compare and contrast, description, sequence.
compare and contrast
A pattern that shows how two or more things are alike (compare) and different (contrast).
expository essay
An essay that explains or informs, with a thesis, body paragraphs of evidence and a conclusion.
thesis
The one-sentence main claim or controlling idea of an essay.
signal words
Words that show how ideas connect, such as similarly, in contrast, however, as a result, first.
footnote
A note at the bottom of the page, linked to the text by a small raised number or symbol; it gives a source or extra explanation.
endnote
Like a footnote, but collected at the end of a chapter or book.
copyright page
A page near the front of a book that shows who owns the rights, the publication dates, the edition, the publisher and other details.
text feature
A part of a text that helps readers find or understand information: headings, captions, glossaries, footnotes, indexes, sidebars.

Remember from Grade 8

In Grade 8 you analyzed the problem-solution pattern in a letter to the editor, and you evaluated glossaries and infographics. In Grade 9 you'll add a pattern you will use constantly in high school, compare and contrast, and two features that serious readers check: footnotes and copyright information.

Hook: Why is the bottom of the page whispering?

Open almost any history book and you'll find tiny numbers floating above words, like this.³ Most people skip them. But those little numbers are the text's way of saying, "Don't just trust me; here's where I got this," or "Here's something extra you might want to know."

(³ See? You looked.)

Text patterns: the skeleton of a text

Every text has a pattern that organizes its ideas. Recognizing the pattern is like seeing the skeleton under the skin: it tells you how the ideas fit together.

  • Chronological (time order): biographies, news reports, history. Signal words: first, in 1867, later, finally.
  • Cause and effect: science articles, history. because, as a result, therefore, led to.
  • Problem and solution: editorials, letters to the editor, proposals. the problem is, one solution, to fix this.
  • Compare and contrast: reviews, essays, buying guides. similarly, both, likewise, in contrast, however, whereas, on the other hand, while.
  • Description: travel writing, field guides. for example, such as, looks like.
  • Sequence (steps): instructions, recipes. next, then, step 3.

Compare and contrast in an expository essay

A compare-and-contrast essay has a thesis that names the subjects and the points of comparison. There are two common ways to organize it.

Block methodIntroduction + thesisPaper map: reliability,detail, ease of usePhone map: reliability,detail, ease of useConclusionPoint-by-point methodIntroduction + thesisReliability: paper vs phoneDetail: paper vs phoneEase of use: paper vs phoneConclusion
Two ways to organize a compare-and-contrast essay. The block method finishes one subject before starting the other; the point-by-point method (used in the essay below) compares both subjects on each point in turn.

Paper Map or Phone Map? Finding Your Way on a Canoe Trip (an expository essay written for this website)

(1) Every summer, thousands of paddlers head into Ontario's parks. Before they launch, they face a choice: trust a paper map or a phone app? Both can guide you, but they differ in reliability, detail and ease of use.

(2) Reliability. A paper map never needs charging, and it survives rain if it is kept in a sealed bag.¹ A phone, in contrast, depends on its battery, and cold weather drains batteries faster. However, a phone with downloaded maps can show your exact position using GPS, even where there is no cell signal, and a paper map cannot do that.

(3) Detail. Paper canoe-route maps usually mark portages, campsites and rapids. Similarly, many apps show these features and let you zoom in closely. On the other hand, a phone screen shows only a small area at a time, while a paper map lets you see the whole route spread out on a picnic table.

(4) Ease of use. An app does much of the thinking for you: a blue dot shows where you are. A paper map requires skill with a compass² and practice matching the map to the shoreline. Yet that skill never runs out of battery.

(5) Both tools have strengths, so many experienced paddlers carry both: the phone to pinpoint their position, and the paper map as a backup that never needs power.

--- ¹ Many paddlers keep maps in a clear, waterproof map case. ² A compass needle points to magnetic north, which is not the same as true north. The difference is called declination, and good maps print it in the margin.

Worked example

Let's map the pattern in the essay

Show how "Paper Map or Phone Map?" uses the compare-and-contrast pattern, and evaluate whether it helps the reader.

  1. Thesis (end of paragraph 1): Both can guide you, but they differ in reliability, detail and ease of use. It names the two subjects and three points.
  2. Organization: paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 each take one point and compare both maps. That is the point-by-point method.
  3. Signal words: contrast: in contrast, however, on the other hand, while, yet; comparison: similarly, both. They tell you which way each idea turns.
  4. Conclusion: paragraph 5 doesn't declare a winner; it synthesizes: carry both.
  5. Evaluate: point-by-point helps the reader weigh the two side by side on each point, which suits a decision like this one. Block method would make the reader remember all of paper's features while reading about phones.

The essay uses a clear thesis, point-by-point body paragraphs and signal words. The pattern is highly important here because the reader's purpose is to choose, and point-by-point puts the choices side by side.

Features serious readers check

Footnotes and endnotes do two jobs:

  1. Cite sources, so you can check where a fact came from.
  2. Add explanation without interrupting the main text (like footnote ² about declination).

Copyright information, usually on the back of the title page, tells you:

  • © the year and who owns the rights (often the author)
  • first published date and the edition (a second edition may be updated)
  • the publisher and place of publication
  • the ISBN, a unique number that identifies the book
  • permissions: credits for images, maps, song lyrics or quotations used with permission
  • sometimes the translator, if the work was translated

Why it matters: a 2003 guide to phone apps is out of date; a 2019 second edition of a canoe-route book is probably more current than the 2012 first edition.

...sealed bag.11 Many paddlers keep mapsin a waterproof map case.Footnote marker and notePaddling North, Second EditionText © 2019 Priya RamanFirst published 2012Spruce Hill Press, Thunder BayISBN 000-0-0000-0000-0 (sample)Maps used with permissionof the cartographer.Copyright page (invented example)
Left: a footnote marker (a small raised number) sends you to a note at the bottom of the page. Right: a copyright page tells you the owner, the dates, the edition and the publisher, which helps you judge how current a text is.

Patterns and features in cultural texts

Cultural texts often include features that help readers from outside the culture without changing the text for readers inside it:

  • A translated ghazal from Urdu may have footnotes explaining words or references that English readers might not know, and a translator's note explaining what couldn't be carried over (such as the original rhyme).
  • A novel that includes words in Anishinaabemowin or Inuktitut may include a glossary or pronunciation guide, or it may choose not to translate some words, so readers experience the language as part of the world of the story.
  • An author's note may explain whose stories the book draws on and whether permission was given by the community.

The pattern can be cultural too. Many oral stories are organized by repetition and cycles, not by a single climax, and some stories link events to place rather than strict time order.

Worked example

Let's evaluate a feature's importance

A translated book of Persian ghazals has: (a) footnotes explaining references to places and earlier poets, (b) a translator's note, (c) an index of first lines. Rank them by how important they are for understanding meaning, and explain.

  1. Footnotes (a): many couplets refer to places, traditions or earlier poems. Without the footnotes, a reader might miss allusions and get only half the meaning. Very important.
  2. Translator's note (b): explains choices: for example, that the translator kept the radif but couldn't keep the exact rhyme. This helps readers know what's changed from the original. Important, especially for judging the translation.
  3. Index of first lines (c): helps you find a poem but doesn't explain it. Useful for navigation, less important for meaning.

Footnotes (most important for meaning), then the translator's note, then the index (helpful for finding, not understanding). Evaluating means ranking with reasons, not just listing.

Just for fun

Why did the footnote feel so important?

Because the whole page was looking down on it.

Hands-on activity

Feature detective

You need: two or three books from your home or library (one non-fiction, one novel, and if possible one translated book or a book with words from another language), sticky notes, a pencil.

  1. Open the copyright page of each book. Write down: © year, first published date, edition, publisher, and any translator.
  2. Decide which book is the most current. Explain how you know.
  3. Find one footnote, endnote, glossary or translator's note. Write what job it does: cite a source or explain something?
  4. Find one paragraph in the non-fiction book and name its text pattern. Copy two signal words as evidence.
  5. Rate each feature you found from 1 to 3 for how much it helps a reader understand. Give a reason for each rating.

What to look for: correct details copied from copyright pages, a reasoned choice about which is most current, and ratings backed by reasons (not just "it's helpful").

Your turn

1

Which text pattern uses signal words such as as a result and therefore?

2

Copy the thesis of "Paper Map or Phone Map?" and name the three points of comparison.

3

Find two contrast signal words and one comparison signal word in paragraph 3.

4

What two jobs can a footnote do? Which job does footnote ¹ do?

5

Name three things a copyright page can tell you.

6

Why is point-by-point a good choice for this essay?

7

A novel includes Inuktitut words without translating some of them. Give one reason an author might make this choice.

More practice: warm-up

1

What pattern does a recipe usually use?

2

What symbol shows copyright?

3

Where do endnotes appear?

4

Name the method that discusses one subject fully, then the other.

5

Give one comparison signal word.

More practice: on your own

1

Read: Lake Superior is colder and deeper than Lake Erie, whereas Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes. Name the pattern and the signal word.

2

A history book has 300 endnotes citing letters and government records. How do they affect the book's credibility? Explain.

3

Your library has a 2009 and a 2021 edition of a guide to Canadian birds. Which would you choose, and what feature told you?

4

Describe how the essay's body would be organized if it used the block method instead. What would come first?

5

Why might an oral story be organized by repetition instead of a single climax?

Challenge

1

Evaluate this claim: Footnotes are less important in a novel than in a history book. Agree or disagree with reasons and an example.

2

Write a thesis for a point-by-point essay comparing reading a play with watching it performed. Name three points.

3

A translated book's copyright page shows: © 2021, translation © 2023, first published in Urdu in 1998. Explain what each date tells you and why a reader might care.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which signal word shows contrast?

2.

In the point-by-point method, each body paragraph...

3.

A small raised number in a sentence most likely leads to a...

4.

Which detail on a copyright page best tells you how current a book is?

5.

A translated poem's translator's note mainly helps readers understand...

6.

Which text pattern best fits a news report about events on one day?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: Grade 9 students compare the text patterns (especially compare and contrast in an expository essay) and text features (especially footnotes and copyright information) used in different forms, including cultural texts, and evaluate how important each is for understanding (C1.3). The skills transfer directly to History, Geography and Science reading (A3.1).

How to help at home:

  • Look at a copyright page together. Ask: "How old is this information? Is there a newer edition?"
  • While watching a product-comparison video, ask: "Is this block or point-by-point?"
  • Ask your teen to rank features from most to least helpful with reasons. Ranking forces evaluation.

Common difficulties:

  • Identifying a pattern from one signal word. "However" can appear in a problem-solution text too. Look at the whole paragraph's job.
  • Skipping footnotes. Encourage reading them at least once to see what they add.
  • Describing instead of evaluating. "It has a glossary" needs "...which matters because...".

Facts used: A compass needle points to magnetic north; the difference from true north is called declination. GPS can show position without cell service if maps are downloaded. Cold temperatures reduce battery performance. The copyright page, the book Paddling North, its author and publisher are invented examples; the ISBN is a placeholder.