Paragraph and Sentence Reordering
What reordering asks
Paragraph and sentence reordering tests two skills: building a grammatical English sentence from scrambled words, and arranging sentences into a logical paragraph. Nagano items often include one extra word or a connector that fixes the order.
Core rules
- For sentence reordering, find the fixed phrase first: 'look forward to -ing,' 'too ... to ...,' 'as ... as,' 'It is ... for ... to ....'
- Place the subject before the verb; place time and place in the usual order: subject + verb + object + place + time.
- For paragraph order, find the topic sentence, then pronoun links ('this,' 'they'), connectors ('however,' 'for example,' 'finally'), and chronological markers.
- Check punctuation: a question needs auxiliary + subject order.
Worked example
Reorder: went / to / he / the / library / study / to. The main clause is 'He went to the library.' The purpose is 'to study.' English order: He went to the library to study. Putting 'to study' before 'the library' breaks the purpose pattern; putting 'to the library' after 'study' is ungrammatical.
Traps
- Putting a purpose infinitive before the object: 'He went to study to the library.'
- Missing the connector that starts a contrast: 'However' cannot begin a supporting example.
- Ignoring pronoun reference: 'They' cannot appear before the noun it refers to.
- Forgetting the extra word that does not belong.
Exam habit
Build the sentence in chunks: subject, verb, object, modifier. Read it aloud silently to check natural order. For paragraphs, number the sentences by link words before writing the final order.