When we speak of text structure, we're referring to the ways in which an author has organized information in a work or passage. The following are some of the common text structures: chronological, cause and effect, problem and solution, compare and contrast, descriptive, and directive. A chronological text structure organizes events as they happened in order, from the beginning of the story to the end. Since there are no jumps in time created by flashbacks or flash forwards in Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter," we can say the text structure of Dahl's story is chronological.

We can tell the text structure of the story is chronological because of the way the events of the story are relayed sequentially, from beginning to end. The story opens being set in the present and describes Mary Maloney peacefully waiting for her husband to come home from work one evening. As she waits, she works on her sewing while occasionally glancing at the clock. Next, just as the reader expects, her husband, Patrick Maloney, arrives home from work. She greets him, kisses him, and makes drinks for the two of them. They begin to converse; he stops her from fixing him anything to eat and relays his bad news. Because she is so stunned by the news, she pretends she doesn't hear and goes downstairs to the freezer to take out a leg of lamb for dinner. When he tells her again not to make dinner because he is "going out," she loses all self-control and hits him over the head with the leg of lamb.

The next events relayed concern her actions to give herself an alibi, hide the evidence, and make herself appear innocent. The story ends with her laughing as she listens to the police officers in the kitchen speculating about the murder weapon as they eat the murder weapon.