The following basic organizational strategies:
- Cause and Effect
- Chronological
- Comparison
- Emphatic
- General to Specific
Can you think of others? The key is not to memorize this but look at the information around you. There is no shortage of examples for you to use such as the books you read for your classes, an article in you favorite magazine, research that someone in your discipline has written. All effectively bit of information are written keeping in mind the audience, a purpose, and a subject.
Remember way back to the beginning of class. I told you about discourse communities. Well, as an engineer, nurse, technical writer, or accountant, you are now a part of those communities. Learn how your community organizes the information it passes on to its audience.
Exercise: Find an article, website, or section of a textbook that is written by someone in your discipline. Write a paragraph discussing your discipline, what you read, and how it was organized.
As a writer, you must match the document's organization to its purpose, audience, and scope. One stumbling block to effective communications is when the reader does not understand the organizational system deployed. Usually, this occurs when the reader has a different view of the information being disseminated, and therefore looks for the information to be presented differently than it is. Also, consider the communications medium being deployed. Mediums lend themselves better to some organizational methods more than others (e.g., contrast websites to paper). As an ongoing exercise, consider how information is organized as you read materials for school, research, or other purposes. What works about the way it was organized? How could the organization have been improved?