15 Patterns of Organization

The organizational pattern of a passage provides an outline for the ideas to flow.

Perhaps the most common organizational pattern used in fiction writing is chronological, where ideas flow from one to the next in time order.  Nonfiction also can organize steps or information in time order.

In nonfiction writing, an organizational pattern is selected in order to best communicate the main idea and author’s purpose.  Some examples of organizational patterns for nonfiction writing include:

• Definition
• Compare/Contrast
• Classification
• Example
• Cause and Effect
• Process Analysis

The author supports his or her overall organizational pattern by connecting words and ideas in relation to one another.  Sometimes signal words alert the reader to the type of relationship intended.  Other times the relationships are implied, and it is the responsibility of the reader to notice them without the assistance of signal words.

Some signal words and the relationship they identify are shown below: