Dahlia is planning a presentation about elephants for her local chapter of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Dahlia has lots of information about elephants--their typical size, what they eat, and where they live. Some of the details she plans to include in her presentation are related to the practice of elephant hunting. Dahlia also wants to describe how elephants are trained to help move heavy objects or to carry people from place to place. She even found some classic stories about elephants and information about the role of elephants in legend, history, and religion.
Dahlia could just share all of these details as she remembers them. That presentation might sound something like this:
As you can see, this approach is not likely to earn Dahlia a standing ovation. If you really want listeners to follow your presentation and get your point, you need to organize your ideas.
How do you know what order to use? Watch this video to learn why organization is so important, and to preview some strategies Dahlia could use to organize her presentation.
Organizing with Style
Narrator:
If information is out of order, it quickly becomes too confusing to understand. Figuring out the most logical way to order your writing will guide your reader through your ideas in a way that makes sense.
Prewriting and planning can help you move steps or arguments around to maximize their clarity and impact.
To get your information across in a thoughtful, meaningful way, you should consider which style of organization works best. Depending on your purpose, you may want to organize your information chronologically, spatially, or from general to specific or specific to general.
Question
What happens when information is presented out of order?
