Finding connections between ideas within a passage | Reading

hello readers today we're going to talk about making connections so I don't mean to brag but I have at least one friend I'm kind of a big deal I have friends at work friends from the schools I attended friends in my apartment building in my neighborhood friends from places I used to live each friend is connected to me in some way maybe we mem the elevator or on the train or at the community garden in some cases I introduced my friends and now they're friends with each other and even hang out without me each friend is connected to me or to each other in a different way and for a different reason and just in the way that people can be friends with each other ideas can be friends with each other to understanding how ideas and a text connect to each other and to the topic of the text will help me understand what I'm reading good readers make connections between ideas in a text when I look at a passage I ask myself what do all these sentences have in common how are they connected let's explain with a brief passage about building ships long ago shipbuilders used iron nails and bolts because iron was easy to find they soon learned the disadvantages of using this metal on a boat iron quickly rusts and decays especially near the salty ocean they switched to using brass which lasts longer I want to use this paragraph to describe three common ways authors show connections comparison cause-and-effect and sequence comparison what's the same or different between two ideas so it's similar between brass and iron is one example we can say okay both of these are metals and both were used in shipbuilding now what's different between them well iron rusts quickly in the ocean and it does so faster than brass right brass lasts longer now let's talk about cause and effect how does one event or idea cause another event or idea well what happens when you put a ship with iron bolts into salt water it rusts and decays the ocean causes the iron to corrode and rust so what did shipbuilders do as a result they switch to using brass and finally sequence what order did things happen in now the paragraph begin with long ago and talks about iron before it talks about brass it then describes how shipbuilders switched to brass so iron came first in the sequence so when I read this passage on shipbuilding even though it is very short I'm able to make a lot of connections between ideas doing this deepened my understanding and helps me to become a better reader now not every sentence or idea is connected to every other sentence or idea just like not every single one of my friends is friends with all of my other friends and that's okay too our goal is to think about how those sentences connect to the topic overall think about the big picture understanding the connections between sentences is one of many ways you can strengthen your skills as a reader you can learn anything Dave it out