Organizing Your Information

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Contents

• Understanding Three Principles for Organizing Technical Information

• Using Basic Organizational Patterns

Introduction

• During the planning phase of the writing process, you need to organize the information that will go in the document

• Need to figure out which organizational patterns will work best

Understanding Three Principles for Organizing Technical Information

• Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose• Using Conventional Patterns of Organization• Displaying Your Organizational Pattern

Prominently

Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose

• The Focus of Everything that we do• Why you plan and research your subject• Audience and purpose is likely to change• Useful to review your assessment of audience

and purpose often

Audience

• Will your audience like the message?– Yes- announce main point early– No- consider a pattern that presents your

important evidence before your main message• Is your audience used to seeing particular

patterns?

Purpose

• Do you want your audience to understand a body of information?

• Do you want your audience to accept a point of view or perhaps act on it?

• How much information do you need? How long does the report have to be?

Three Questions to Ask

• Does the text follow expected organizational patterns?

• Do the introductions and conclusions present the kind of information you would expect?

• Does the text appear to be organized linearly?

Using Conventional Patterns of Organization

• There are 8 conventional patterns of organization that will be discussed shortly

• Should be used if they already exist- saves time and makes it easier to both you and the audience

• Conventional patterns serve as a template or checklist- remember information, helps you to remember information and where you should put the information

• Does not mean that Technical Communication is just filling in the blanks

Displaying Your Organizational Pattern Prominently

• Create a detailed table of contents• Use headings liberally• Use topic sentences at the beginning of your

paragraph

Table 7.1- Organizational Patterns

• Chronological• Spatial• General to specific• More important to less important• Compare and contrast• Classification and partition• Problems-methods-solution• Cause and effectIt is important to note that complex arguments often require several organizational patterns

Chronological

• Chronological- or time line- to describe events• Accident Report and reference manual• Guidelines-– Provide Signposts– Consider using graphics to compliment text– Analyze events where appropriate

Spatial

• Used to describe objects and physical sites.

General to specific

• Used when the reader needs a general understanding of a subject before they can understand and remember the details

• Sets of instructions/User’s Manuals

More Important to Less Important

• Recognition that readers often want the bottom line – the most important information- first

• Sometimes reverse it when you want to make sure that the audience reads the whole thing

Compare and Contrast

• Describe and evaluate two or more items or options

• First step is to determine the criteria- often have to consider many

• Whole-by-Whole• Part-by-part• Can to both- emphasize particular aspects

Classification and Partition

• Classification is the process of assigning items to categories. Eg. Age, gender, courses etc.

• Classification is common in Technical Communication

• Partition is breaking a unit into its components• Partition is used in descriptions of objects

Problem-Methods-Solution

• Problem- A description if what was/is not working (or not working effectively)

• Methods- Procedures performed to confirm the analysis of the problem

• Solution- Statement on the analysis of the problem/ the correction(s)

Cause and Effect

• Quite often involved in Tech Com• Sometimes reason forward• Sometimes reason backward– What will be the effects(s) of x?– What caused x?

• Often difficult because there is no real scientific way to determine cause and effect

• Cannot always be proven