How to Solve Paragraph Ordering Questions Quickly

how to solve Paragraph ordering Question Quickly

How to Solve Paragraph Ordering:


  • Paragraph Ordering Questions are sets of connected sentences in some random order, which when ordered, create a meaningful paragraph.

  • The ability to order these mixed sentences is directly related to a person’s ability to resolve disordered situations.

In paragraphs ordering, jumbled up sentences are given. We have to rearrange the sentences in the right order.

Look for a mandatory pair to solve Paragraph Ordering Question : 

Mandatory pair is a set of statements which seem to come one after the other.

  1. Whenever you sense a mandatory pair, just look at the choices.
  2. If only one choice has the pair, that might be the answer.
  3. But obviously if more than one choice has the same mandatory pair then we should adapt some other steps as follow.

♦ Definite pairs are the sentences which will come together. For example, it is found that AD is a definite pair.

♦ Therefore, any pair of the options which do not have AD as the pair will be eliminated from the given options.

♦ Again use Noun-Pronoun relationship approach where the noun will come in the first statement and will be replaced by pronouns in the second statement. 

♦ The sentence containing noun and the sentence containing pronoun will come together

♦ Look for the sentences explaining cause and effect. The sentence with the cause and the sentence with the effect will come together.

♦ Look for signpost clues like ‘but’ and ‘and.’

How to Solve Paragraph Ordering:

Steps to solve Paragraph Ordering Quickly

Word Indicators & How To Solve Paragraph Ordering Question Quickly :

  • Introduction – A, An, Nowadays, Beginning.
  • Conclusion – Clearly, Thus, Therefore, Eventually, Finally.
  • Comparison Indicators – Similarly, Likewise.
  • Contrast Indicators – On the one hand, But, Yet, However, Nevertheless, Although.
  • Additional Information Indicators – Also, Additionally.
  • Sequence Indicators – Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, Lastly.
  • Cause and Effect – Due to, as, since. 

How To Solve Paragraph Ordering Question-Identifying the first sentence:

  • Read the complete sentences and find the essence of the statements.
  • Try to collect the clue words like firstly, in the beginning, Once upon a time, etc.
  • Try to find a sentence which introduces a topic or person or idea.
  • The below points will clear your doubt on how to eliminate sentences which cannot be opening sentence.

a.) Carry forward words: Words like “and, so, moreover” which carry forward a line of thought expressed in the earlier statement.

b.) Contrast words: Words like “but, however, nevertheless” which create a Contradiction with the earlier line of thought.

c.) Conclusive words: Words like finally, thus, eventually etc. which conclude. If a particular statement looks like a good starting point, then look at the choices to eliminate wrong options.

How To Solve Paragraph Ordering Question Quickly

Identifying closing sentence in Paragraph Ordering Question :  

If a particular statement looks like one which has to come at the end then that is called an obvious conclusion or closing sentence. It usually happens when one of the conclusive words comes in the sentence.

Type 1 – Arrange the paragraphs

Question 1 :

Order the given sentences into a Paragraph .

A. Passivity is not, of course, universal.
B. In areas where there are no lords or laws, or in frontier zones where all men go armed, the attitude of the peasantry may well be different.
C. So indeed it may be on the fringe of the un-submissive.
D. However, for most of the soil-bound peasants, the problem is not whether to be ordinarily passive or active, but when to pass from one state to another.
E. This depends on an assessment of the political situation.

Options :


Correct Option: C

Explanation :

Look at the pronoun in sentence C. Let us find, what is “it” here referring to? It here refers to un-submissive. In sentence A, it cannot refer to “passivity,” in sentence B “attitude can be referred as un-submissive, in sentence D, “problem cannot be un-submissive and in sentence E, “political situation” cannot be un-submissive. Therefore, BC is a definite pair. Now, look at the options given. The link BC is only present in option 3, and we need not look any further.

Question 2 :

Rearrange the following six sentences A, B, C, D, E and F in the proper sequence to form a meaningful paragraph.

B. So in the agrarian era, if you need to destroy the enemy’s productive capacity, what you want to do is bum his fields, or if you’re vicious, salt them.
D. How do you do battle with your enemy?
E. The idea is to destroy the enemy’s productive capacity and depending upon the economic foundation, that productive capacity is different in each case
F. About defense, the purpose of the military is to defend the nation and be prepared to do battle with its enemy.

Options :


Correct Option: B

Explanation :

Look at the transition word “but” in the first sentence. It signifies that the sentence is expressing an idea contrary to an idea expressed in some previous sentence. Now we need to find that previous sentence. If we further look at the beginning of the first sentence, it says “but in the industrial era…” which suggests that the contrariness is with respect to eras.
Looking further, we see that sentence B and C are also starting with a statement about eras. But the transition word at the start of C is “now” which expresses present era and hence it cannot chronologically come before any other past era. That is, if the information era is the present era, talk about any other era will come before this. So sentence B is the correct sentence to come before the first sentence.
Likewise, sentence C is the correct sentence to come after the first sentence (sentence C is continuing the idea). Therefore, we have the link BAC.
We see that option 1, 3 and 4 all have the link BAC. Furthermore, all the three options have the link EBAC. Therefore, we only need to arrange D and F. The sentence F states that “The purpose is —- to battle with the enemy” and D questions “how do you battle with the enemy?” Therefore, D will come after F. Hence FDEBAC is the correct arrangement.
how to solve paragraph ordering quickly

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