Six Patterns of Organization

1.Main Idea and Supporting Details The main idea of a paragraph or a longer piece of writing is its most important point. Supporting details give more information about the main idea. Supporting detail main idea Supporting detail Supporting detail

2. Chronological Order Writing that is organized in chronological order presents events in the order in which they occur. event 1 event 2 event 3 event 4

3. Compare and Contrast Comparison and contrast writing explains how two or more subjects are similar and how they are different. subject 1 both subject 2

4. Cause and Effect Cause-and-effect writing explains the relationship between events. A cause is an event that gives rise to another event, called an effect. A cause may have more than one effect, and an effect may have more than one cause. effect effect cause cause effect effect

5. Problem and Solution This type of writing describes a difficult issue and suggests at least one way of solving it. The writer provides reasons to support his solution. problem solution reason reason reason

6. Spatial Order In this pattern, items are arranged according to their physical position or relationships. top Middle bottom