1. Organizing Your Information
Chapter 7
Organizing Your Information

2. Principles for Organizing Technical Information
Analyze your audience and purpose.
Use conventional patterns of organization.
Serves as a template or checklist
Display your organizational pattern prominently in the document.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

3. Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information
Every technical report is different and calls for its own organizational pattern.
Some require multiple patterns (See p. 132)
We will focus on one main pattern for each technical document created, but you may use other patterns to aid in clarifying your topic.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

4. Studying Documents from Other Cultures
Does the text follow expected organizational patterns?
Do the introductions and conclusions present the kind of information you would expect?
Is the text organized into paragraphs?
Does the text appear to be organized linearly?
Does the text use headings? If so, does it use more than one level?
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

5. Conventional Patterns of Organization
Make things easier for the author & audience
Display organizational pattern prominently
Create a table of contents
Use headings liberally
Use topic sentences at the beginning of paragraphs
Each type of argument calls for its own organizational pattern. (See Fig. 7.1)
Long, complex arguments often require several organizational patterns.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

6. Typical Patterns of Organization
Basic patterns of organizing information:
Chronological: describe steps, events
Spatial: describe objects & physical sites
General to specific: background
More important to less important
Comparison and contrast
Classification and partition: categories or components
Problem-methods-solution
Cause and effect
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

7. Chronological Organization
Commonly used to describe events or steps (Functional)
Describe a mechanism
Sequence of events of an accident
Describe background of a subject (events leading up to topic)
Describe steps in a sequence—set of instructions)
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

8. Guidelines for Organizing Information Chronologically
Provide signposts (HEADINGS)
Step 1, Phase 1, Stage 1, and Part 1
Consider numbering headings (above)
Use transitional words
Then, next, first, and finally
Analyze events where appropriate
Although time-line can be easy, it doesn’t explain why or how an event happened, or what it means.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

9. Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information
Spatial Organization
Commonly used to describe objects and physical sites.
Describe a physical scene in an accident report
Describe a physical location
A computer room
A network system layout
Describe a design
A computer system (CPU, monitor, etc.)
Fig. 7.3, p. 134
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

10. Guidelines for Organizing Information Spatially
Provide signposts:
Use words & phrases that indicate location (to the left, above, in the center) in headings and topic sentences, and supporting sentences to aid your reader in the visual representation.
Use graphics to complement the text:
Diagrams, drawings, photographs, and maps.
Analyze events where appropriate:
Spatial doesn’t explain itself
Analysis of events leading up to reason for description is still needed
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

11. General to Specific Organization
Commonly provides a general understanding of a subject, so details can be better understood.
Background of object or physical site
Overall process, before chronological steps or spatial description
E.g. executive summary
Fig. 7.4, p. 135
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

12. More-important to Less-important
Recognizes that readers of technical communication often want the bottom-line (the most important information) first.
Fig. 7.5, p. 137
Important factors leading to any purpose for writing the technical document.
Feasibility study – major reasons
Proposal – major applications
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

13. More-important to Less-important
Provide signposts
Explain organization
Explain why one point is more important than other
Consider using graphics to complement text
Diagrams, numbered lists, tables
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

14. Comparison and Contrast
Used to describe and evaluate two or more items or options
Credentials of job candidates, strategies for designing a new microchip
Fig. 7.6, p. 140
We’ll come back to this in a later assignment
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

15. Guidelines for Organizing Information by Comparison and Contrast
Establish criteria for the comparison and contrast.
If appropriate, determine whether each criterion calls for a required characteristic or a desired characteristic.
Evaluate each item according to the criteria you have established.
Organize the discussion.
Consider using graphics to complement the text.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

16. Classification and Partition
Classification  process of assigning items to categories, Fig 7.7, p. 143
E.g. feasibility studies, classify sites into domestic and foreign, or medical procedures as surgical or nonsurgical
Partition  process of breaking a unit into its components, Fig. 7.8, p. 144
We used this for the technical description
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

17. Guidelines for Organizing Information by Classification or Partition
Choose a basis of classification or partition that fits your audience and purpose.
Use only one basis of classification or partition at a time.
Avoid overlap.
Be inclusive.
Arrange the categories in a logical sequence.
Consider using graphics to complement the text.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

18. Problems-Methods-Solution
Common in technical communication
Proposal
Describes problem, how it will be addressed
Fig. 7-9, p. 146
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

19. Guidelines for Organizing Information by Problem-Methods-Solution
In describing the problem, be clear and specific.
In describing your methods, help your readers understand what you did and why you did it that way.
In describing the solution, don't overstate.
Choose a logical sequence.
Consider using graphics to complement the text.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

20. Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information
Cause and Effect
Common in technical communication
Fig. 7.10, p. 148
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

21. Guidelines for Organizing Information by Cause and Effect
Explain your reasoning.
Avoid overstating your argument.
Avoid logical fallacies.
Jumping to conclusions
Hasty generalizations
Hindsight reasoning
Consider using graphics to complement the text.
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

22. Introducing & Concluding the Body
In addition to the basic pattern of the document, two more elements are important:
Introduction
Conclusion
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

23. Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information
Introducing the Body
One main goal
To help readers understand your discussion
by explaining what information you are going to present,
how you are going to present it, and
why you choose to present it that way.
May have one at the beginning or one at the start of each major section
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

24. Introduction Should Answer Seven Questions
What is the subject?
What are key terms that will be used?
What is the purpose of the document?
What is the background of the subject?
What is the relevant literature and its limitations?
What is the scope?
What is the organization of the argument?
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

25. Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information
Concluding the Body
Inferences drawn from technical data Or
Final part of a document
Most technical documents will have a conclusion, but there are exceptions:
Parts catalog
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information

26. Conclusion Should Answer Four Questions
What are the main ideas communicated?
What should be done next?
How can the reader find more information?
How can writer (sponsor) help in the future?
Chapter 7. Organizing Your Information