Understanding Patterns of Organization
As you read,it's helpful to understand how the ideas in a piece of writing
are organized. Below are three commonly-used organizational patterns
in English.
organized by time. When writers tell a story, they often present the
events in the story in the order in which they happened. Dates and time
phrases (in the morning; when I was 16) indicate that
the writing is organized by time.
organized by order of importance. When writers want to explain
something they may provide reasons or examples starting with the most
important information and ending with the least important. Alternatively
they may start with the least important information and end with the most
important.
organized by similarities or differences. When writers want to show
how two things are similar or different, they can first describe one thing in
detail and then go on to describe the other thing. Alternatively, they can
say something short about one thing and then immediately say how the
second thing is similar or differrent.