Essential Organizational Patterns

Organizational patterns are chosen based on audience and purpose. With some subjects, organizational patterns are easy to choose, while others may involve a combination of patterns. Anticipate the needs of your audience and logically consider which type of organization best fits your purpose.

Sequential divides a subject into steps and present them in the order they occur. The audience is able to easily understand and follow this type of organization since it flows logically from one step to the other. Avoid the pitfall of assuming the audience knows more than they do and provide detailed explanations to each step. Sequential patterns are typically used for writing instructions.

Chronological focuses on the order steps occur in time. This is typically used in trip reports, work schedules, minutes of meetings, and laboratory test procedures.

Spatial describes an object according to the arrangements of its features. You may choose to describe the subject by dimension, direction, shape, or proportion. This can easily be used with sequential or chronological organizations since all are divided into steps. Spatial organization is commonly used with emergency plans, layouts, and progress reports.

Division separates a whole into parts. Carefully consider the subject and your purpose before dividing information and keep your choice of division consistent.

Both division and classification are used to help the audience consider individual areas of a subject and their relationship to one another.

Classification groups a number of units into related categories. Outlining or tables are often used since both organize information by relationship and further break down the subject.

Decreasing order of importance begins with the most important point and ends with the least important point. This is useful for audiences with limited time who need to quickly scan a document. Newspapers adopt this model of organization by placing primary information first followed by background information.

Increasing order of importance begins with the least important point and concludes with the most important point. This is useful when you want the reader to have the most important information fresh in mind. However, your audience may get distracted or impatient before reaching the main point.

General-to-specific places a general statement or the key finding at the beginning and follows with supporting facts or examples. This is commonly used in memos and reports, which place the key statement at the beginning followed by supporting facts in the body of the document.

Specific-to-general begins with specific information and builds toward a general conclusion. This is useful when dealing with a skeptical audience because it allows you to build your case throughout the document before reaching the general conclusion.

Comparison is used to evaluate the merits of different items for a specific purpose. First, determine the basis for the comparison. Then, find an effective way to structure the comparison.

• The whole-by-whole pattern is used to discuss all relevant characteristics of one item before moving onto the next.
• The part-by-part pattern is used to compare relevant features of each item one by one.

Most comparisons use tables so your reader can compare the information all at once.