Discourse markers : organising a narrative in chronological order

🔊 المعلّمة تقرأ لك

Here are four true sentences about the same pupil, thrown on the table in the wrong order. “He received his high school diploma.” “He went to kindergarten.” “He entered the 7th grade.” “He started primary school.” You can put them back in the right order in two seconds — because you know how a school career works. But your reader may not. Now write the four of them as one text that anyone can follow. Something has to be added between the sentences, and it is not a new fact. What is it?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

التعرّف على روابط الترتيب الزمنيّ في نصّ، وتحديد موقعها من الجملة
استعمال ⁦First · Then · Next · After that · Finally⁩ لترتيب سرد أو حكاية
ربط مرحلة بالتي قبلها بـ⁦After + V-ing · Before + V-ing · When · As soon as⁩
تحويل جملٍ مبعثرة إلى نصّ مرتّب يُقرأ من أوّله إلى آخره
سرد مسار حياة أو مسار دراسة سردا مرتّبا لا يضلّ فيه القارئ

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

الماضي البسيط والمضارع البسيط في السرد
الأعداد الترتيبيّة : ⁦first · second · sixth · twelfth⁩
قراءة جدول ذي أعمدة واستخراج معلومة منه

Presentation

لاحظ الرسالة أوّلا. لا تحمل ولا تاريخا واحدا، ومع ذلك لا يضلّ القارئ : ابحث عن السبب قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة.

Becky writes to Hamida about school in the USA

Dear Hamida, Thank you for the photos of your school. They are really nice. I've got the best mark in the class for my project on Algeria. It's my turn to give you information about how pre-university education works in America. American boys and girls spend six years in Primary School (also called Elementary School or Grade School). After finishing the sixth grade, students go to a junior high school (also called Middle School) for two more years. After completing junior high, each student chooses a programme of study to follow at a senior high school, or at a college prep, or at a vocational training. High school students receive a high school diploma at a graduation ceremony at the end of the twelfth year. Some of them then continue their studies in a community college or in a university, and some start work to earn a living. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Yours, Becky

What does this letter tell you before you read any rule?

ماذا تعلّمك هذه الرسالة قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة ؟

Becky gives no date at all — not one year, not one month — and you never lose the thread. The order is carried by something else.
Every new step comes with a group of words that says when: “After finishing the sixth grade…”, “After completing junior high…”, “at the end of the twelfth year”.
Those groups carry no information. Take them all out and every fact is still there — but the reader now has to rebuild the order himself, and he will not.
Two of them are built exactly the same way: After + verb + -ing. And both stand at the front of the sentence, with a comma behind them.

⟹ These groups of words are called discourse markers. They do not tell the story; they tell the reader where he is in the story. The rest of the lesson only gives them their names.

A discourse marker of chronological order is a word or a group of words that shows the place of an event in a series. It usually has three features: — it comes at the front of its sentence; — it is followed by a comma; — it adds no fact — remove it and the sentence stays true, but the text loses its order. ⭐ English gives you three kinds, and a good narrative uses all three: ① The simple sequencers — First, Then, Next, After that, Finally. ② The linked ones — After / Before + verb + -ing · When … · As soon as … ③ The dated ones — at the age of six · at the end of the twelfth year · two years later.

Which marker, and where in the story

Where you are in the story	The marker	Example
The first step	First · At first · To begin with · At the age of …	First, American children go to a nursery school.
A new step	Then · Next · After that · Later	After that, they spend six years in primary school.
A step tied to the one before	After + V-ing · Before + V-ing · When … · As soon as …	After finishing the sixth grade, they go to a junior high school.
The last step	Finally · At last · In the end · At the end of …	Finally, they receive their diploma at a graduation ceremony.

The marker stands in front and the comma follows it. That comma is the signal that says to the reader: a new step begins here.

Your inventory — learn them in families, not one by one

to open — First · At first · To begin with · In the beginningto go on — Then · Next · After that · Later · Soon after · Two years laterto tie two steps — After + V-ing · Before + V-ing · When · As soon as · Until · Whileto close — Finally · At last · In the end · At the end of …

The same events, told twice

الأحداث نفسها، مرويّة مرّتين : مرّة بلا روابط ومرّة بها. قارن.

Read this. Every fact is true, and nothing is missing. So what is wrong?

American children go to a pre-school or a nursery school at two or three. They go to kindergarten at four or five. They spend six years in primary school. They enter the seventh grade at twelve. They go to a senior high school at fourteen. They receive a high school diploma. Some of them continue in a community college or in a university. Read it out loud, then say in one sentence what your ear does not like.

What is wrong, and how to repair it

ما الخلل ؟ وكيف يُصلَح ؟

Nothing is false — and that is exactly the problem. Seven sentences, five of them opening with “They…”, and not one word between them. The reader is given a list and asked to turn it into a story by himself. Here is the same list, with five markers added and not one fact changed: First, American children go to a pre-school or a nursery school at two or three. Then, at four or five, they go to kindergarten. After that, they spend six years in primary school. They enter the seventh grade at twelve, and two years later they go to a senior high school. Finally, they receive a high school diploma, and some of them continue in a community college or in a university.

Seven sentences became five, and the text became longer to write and shorter to read. That is what discourse markers buy you: the reader stops working, and starts following.

Three things happened in that repair, and only three

four markers were added at the front — First · Then · After that · Finallytwo sentences were joined by one marker — “and two years later…”not one fact or one name was touched — “at fourteen” only became “two years later” (12 + 2)

⚠️ Do not add a marker in front of every sentence: a text where each line begins with “Then” is as tiring as a text with none. Mark the steps, not the sentences — four or five markers are enough for a whole paragraph.

⛔ Three mistakes to bury now. — not “Finally they received their diploma” without a comma. The comma is part of the marker: “Finally, they received their diploma.” — not “After to finish junior high”. After after and before, the verb takes -ing: “After finishing junior high”, “Before leaving school”. — not “In the end of the year” for a date. At the end of + a moment (at the end of the year, at the end of the lesson). In the end means “after hesitating, at last”: “He thought about it for a week; in the end he said yes.”

⛔ ثلاثة أخطاء : الفاصلة بعد الرابط لا قبله · بعد ⁦after · before⁩ يأتي الفعل بـ⁦-ing⁩ لا بالمصدر · ⁦at the end⁩ زمنيّة و⁦in the end⁩ تعني « أخيرا بعد تردّد ».

Practice

تمارين. أنجزها على كرّاسك أوّلا، ثمّ افتح التصحيح.

Exercise 1 — Put one marker in each blank: First, Then, After that, Finally, After finishing

a. … , mix the sifted flour and the eggs with a fork. b. … , put a little oil in the pan and heat it. c. … , pour in two tablespoonfuls of the mixture and cook for 45 seconds. d. … , toss the pancake once and cook for another 45 seconds. e. … the sixth grade, American students go to a junior high school.

Answers to Exercise 1

	Answer	Why
a	First, mix the sifted flour and the eggs with a fork.	it is the first step ⟹ First
b	Then, put a little oil in the pan and heat it.	a new step, with nothing tying it to the one before
c	After that, pour in two tablespoonfuls of the mixture.	a new step again; After that avoids repeating Then
d	Finally, toss the pancake once and cook for another 45 seconds.	the last step of the series ⟹ Finally
e	After finishing the sixth grade, students go to a junior high school.	this step is tied to the one before ⟹ After + V-ing, no comma inside

Exercise 2 — Three plans, in the wrong order. Make them one text.

Here are three sentences a pupil wrote about his future. They are correct, but they are not in order and nothing joins them. 1. After I get my diploma, I'll build glass houses. 2. When I leave the lycée, I'll travel around Algeria. 3. I'll work for some time before I go to university to train as an architect. ⟹ Put them in the order in which they will happen, and add the markers that turn them into one paragraph.

Answers to Exercise 2

First, when I leave the lycée, I'll travel around Algeria.
Then, I'll work for some time before I go to university to train as an architect.
Finally, after I get my diploma, I'll build glass houses.

Notice how the order was found: not by the grammar, but by the facts. You cannot get a diploma before entering a university, and you cannot leave the lycée after being an architect. ⟹ The chronology decides, and the marker only shows it. A marker put on the wrong sentence does not make the text wrong — it makes it a lie.

At the BEM, discourse markers are worth marks twice. In Mastery of language, as a direct exercise — “re-order these sentences”, or “fill in with: first, then, after that, finally”. In Written expression, they are the difference between a paragraph and a list, whenever the subject asks you to tell what happened or explain how something is done. Keep three things ready: a marker at the front, a comma behind it ; After / Before + V-ing ; and four or five markers for a whole paragraph, not one per sentence. ⛔ The mistake that costs marks every year: a paragraph where every single sentence begins with “and then”.

A narrative is not a pile of true sentences: it is true sentences in an order the reader can see. Discourse markers are what make that order visible — First, Then, After that, Finally for the steps, After / Before + V-ing to tie one step to the one before, and a date or an age when you have one. They add nothing to what you know, and everything to what your reader understands.

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