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LEARNINGCURVE: Organizing and Emphasizing Your Information and

During the planning phase of your writing process, you need to organize the information that will go into a document. Writers draw on a number of structures, or organizational patterns, to deliver information to their audiences. But how do you know which organizational patterns will work best for a given project? Is it a question of the information you want to communicate? The audience you are addressing? The purpose you are trying to achieve? The culture in your own company? Short answer: to varying degrees, all of these factors will influence the pattern you choose. To get some ideas, talk with experienced co-workers, study other similar documents, and read this chapter.

At this point, you should know for whom you are writing and why, and you should have completed most of your research. Now it is time to start organizing the information that will make up the body of your document, whether it is a print document or an online one.