Getting the structure right: The Process

Professor Joseph Kimble has described the process of sorting information and has developed an analogy that helps us not only to see more clearly what we do, but also to do it: to get the structure right. With Joe's kind permission, I use his material in the plain-language training courses I run (and in this article). His approach and analogy stay in people's heads. They tell me so — sometimes months after they came on the course.

Here's what Joe has to say about the process.

Technically, when you organise the document, you are doing three things: dividing, classifying, and sequencing.

* Dividing: Deciding how to cut into the material, what principle you will use. You may think of it as creating your headings and subheadings.

* Classifying: Describing what ideas go under what section (heading) and subsection (subheading). The main principle is to put closely related ideas together.

* Sequencing: Putting the section and subsections in a logical order.

Usually, you divide and classify as one blended operation. As you sort the information into the different sections, you may realise that one of them is too broad or too narrow, or that the sections overlap. So you have to rethink the division. On the other hand, sequencing is pretty much a separate operation.

It is useful to recognise the three separate steps in developing a document's structure. (They are, if you like, the paradigm of the architect's role.) In many documents, although the headings at a high level are in a sensible order (that is, the high-level sequencing makes sense), the ideas under the headings have not been properly divided and classified. This dramatically weakens the power of the high-level sequencing. To get the structure right, the dividing and classifying have to be done properly.

So let's look at the dividing and classifying in detail, and then worry about sequencing.