Six Patterns of Organization

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Six Patterns ofOrganization
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1.Main Idea and Supporting Details

• The main idea of a paragraph or a longer piece of
  writing is its most important point. Supporting
  details give more information about the main idea.

Supporting detail
main idea
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
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2. Chronological Order

• Writing that is organized in chronological order
  presents events in the order in which they occur.

event 1
event 2
event 3 event 4
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3. Compare and Contrast

• Comparison and contrast writing explains how two
  or more subjects are similar and how they are
  different.

subject 1 both subject 2
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4. Cause and Effect

• Cause-and-effect writing explains the
  relationship between events. A cause is an event
  that gives rise to another event, called an
  effect. A cause may have more than one effect,
  and an effect may have more than one cause.

effect
effect
cause
cause
effect
effect
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5. Problem and Solution

• This type of writing describes a difficult issue
  and suggests at least one way of solving it. The
  writer provides reasons to support his solution.

problem
solution
reason
reason
reason
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6. Spatial Order

• In this pattern, items are arranged according to
  their physical position or relationships.

top
Middle
bottom
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7. Two Overall Organizational Patterns for Essays
THESIS

• DEDUCTIVE
• Most common pattern
• Start with THESIS
• Then, give SPECIFIC DETAILS to support THESIS.
• INDUCTIVE
• Start with SPECIFIC DETAILS.
• Ending with a GENERAL CONCLUSION (DELAYED THESIS).

SPECIFIC DETAILS
SPECIFIC DETAILS
THESIS
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When to use each type

• Main IdeaOld Faithful
• When writing an expository essay, an essay to
  expose or to explain
• Chronological Order
• To narrate stories and historical accounts
• To explain a process (How To)
• Compare/Contrast
• To compare two or more people, objects, or
  concepts
• Cause/Effect
• To explain scientific findings or an
  historical/current event.
• Problem and Solution
• To present a proposal.
• Spatial
• To describe a scene/room.
• For descriptive essays.