Glossary
sequence
A sequence structure presents information in time order, using words like first, then, after and finally as its skeleton.
A sequence text structure arranges information in time order — steps in a process, events in a history, stages in a procedure. Its skeleton is the transition: first, next, then, after, before, meanwhile, finally, plus dates and durations. Read the signals and the order is already visible, which matters because a sequence passage most often produces questions about what happened before or after something named, or about which step comes third. Do not confuse sequence with cause and effect: sequence says only that one thing followed another, while cause and effect says the earlier thing produced the later one. A timeline can be a sequence with no causal claim at all, and a question that asks why cannot be answered from sequence alone. Where the two overlap — a procedure in which step two only works because step one ran — the passage will usually say so with because or so.
Taught in
Related terms
- text structure — Text structure is the outline a passage is built on — sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, or problem and solution — and naming it tells you where the claim sits.
- cause and effect — A cause-and-effect structure explains why something happened, linking an event to the conditions that produced it.
- signal word — A signal word is a transition that tells the reader what the next sentence is doing — adding, contrasting, concluding or giving a cause.
- compare and contrast — A compare-and-contrast structure sets two things side by side, showing how they are alike and how they differ, usually along the same points.
Source: The reading-comprehension guide in this course: the three skills above are the ones that guide teaches, and every definition is written for this course in our own words, with no publisher's prose reproduced. Elsevier's own HESI A2 page, which names reading comprehension among the areas the exam covers, is the exam-side source. (Elsevier HESI A2 page accessed 2026-10-23; definitions written 2026-10-27)