1. Six Patterns of Organization

2. 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

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

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

5. 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

6. 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

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