The document provides instructions to reorder jumbled sentences into coherent paragraphs. It presents 5 examples of jumbled sentences from different sources and asks the reader to identify the proper ordering for each set of sentences. The examples cover topics such as the study of old English works, the importance of grammar, strategies for improving spelling, the limitations of IQ tests, and viewing writing as a craft similar to furniture making.

1. Re­arranging jumbled sentences from
paragraphs
The well­written paragraph should ‘hang together’. If, then, I were to
take some paragraphs and jumble the sentence order, would you be
able to put them in the correct order? Try it with the jumbled
sentences below. I’ve put a line break between each sentence and
given each a letter (starting at a). For each group of sentences ­ that
is, each paragraph ­ write down the order in which they should really
be.
1. The proper order of sentences for this paragraph should
be.............
a. Perhaps misguidedly and, not only in my case, certainly in vain, our
teacher encouraged us to find emotion and even merit in the likes of
Beowulf and ‘The Dream of the Rood’.
b. It would have been better all round if this part of the course had
been separated off and introduced under another and unashamedly
philological 1
heading and literary considerations dropped.
c. At university I studied, lazily I fear, the early history of our language
and some of the works written in it before the year 1500.
(Kingsley Amis, The King’s English)
1. Love of learning and literature; the study of literature, in a wide sense, including
grammar, literary criticism and interpretation, the relation of literature and written
records to history, etc.; literary or classical scholarship; polite learning. (OED.)
2. The proper order of sentences for this paragraph should
be.............
a) Without a grammar, that is, without rules to govern the
arrangement of words and the making of their plurals, tenses, and so
on, meanings could not be made clear by writers or understood by
readers.
b) There are no fixed, unchangeable rules of correct grammar, but
there is a large and solid body of accepted practice which, if used
widely and consistently, enables us to make our meanings exact.

2. c) Grammar becomes important when bad grammar makes writing
imprecise or ambiguous.
(D. J. Collinson, Writing English).
3. The proper order of sentences for this paragraph should
be.............
a. Those who find spelling difficult, and who do not naturally do much
remembering and thinking with mental ‘photographs,’ can try to
develop that ability.
b. Some people seem to have no trouble with spelling; others have to
work hard at it.
c. But there are other ways of overcoming the difficulties.
d. Those who find it easy generally have a natural ability to picture
words mentally: they can see the ‘look’ of a word in the mind’s eye.
(D. J. Collinson, Writing English).
4. The proper order of sentences for this paragraph should
be.............
a) Similarly, some people who are poor at languages are excellent at
computer sciences.
b) IQ tests only measure things that can be measured!
c) Many areas of human excellence, however, cannot easily be
measured, such as artistic and musical creativity, emotional maturity,
keeping a cool head in emergencies, being able to impersonate other
people, and inventiveness.
d) Students who have failed in language­ or number­based GCSEs
often do very well on university courses in the arts.
e) Some people may excel in these areas and yet perform poorly in
tests that are language­based.

3. (Stella Cottrell, The Study Skills Handbook)
5. The proper order of sentences for this paragraph should
be.............
a. Picture, for example, the furniture maker setting out to make a
table.
b. It is helpful to think of writing as a craft.
c. And even then it still has to be smoothed, waxed and polished.
d. First he or she has to conceive of a design for the table, then choose
the wood, prepare it, measure it, mark it, cut it, shape it, make the
joints, and finally put it together.
e. Writing essays may not be quite as elaborate a process (or you may
not have time to let it be), but it does have some of that quality ­
requiring you to work methodically through a whole series of closely
linked activities.
f. You have to break it down into stages.
g. If you simply sit down when you have finished reading the course
texts and try to write a whole essay in a single sweep, you will get
nowhere.
h. The job is too big.
i. Then you can take it stage by stage and work your way to a finished
product.
(Andrew Northedge, The Good Study Guide).
Roehampton University.
Written by Adrian Chapman, Lecturer in Academic English.