  We formulate general rules for a coarse-graining of the dynamics, which we
term `symbolic dynamics', of feedback networks with monotone interactions, such
as most biological modules. Networks which are more complex than simple cyclic
structures can exhibit multiple different symbolic dynamics. Nevertheless, we
show several examples where the symbolic dynamics is dominated by a single
pattern that is very robust to changes in parameters and is consistent with the
dynamics being dictated by a single feedback loop. Our analysis provides a
method for extracting these dominant loops from short time series, even if they
only show transient trajectories.
