A key part of getting your message across in a piece of writing is to make it easy for readers to process the information. One of the most effective ways to do this is to structure your work so that your audience can follow the ‘narrative’. Here are a few tips on improving the structure of your work.
1. Define what you want to say
Before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), it is important to set out the purpose of the piece of writing. This will help you to put your ideas in order and to avoid going off-topic.
2. Make a plan
For shorter pieces of writing, it is not always necessary to write out a plan. However, for reports, articles and academic writing, it can be a really useful (even essential) part of the process to make a simple plan of what you want to say and to order your paragraphs.
3. Prioritise information
When deciding how to plan a piece of writing, it is important to focus on the most important information and ensure this takes prominence. If the piece of writing covers lots of information, be sure to rank your ideas, so that readers grasp the most important points.
4. Move logically into the next section
Structuring a piece of writing means moving seamlessly between sections and paragraph. This simply involves working logically and ‘grouping’ ideas together.
5. Add an introduction and conclusion
Not only does this nicely ‘bookend’ a piece of writing for the reader, it can help you, the writer. This is because you are forced to summarise in a sentence or short paragraph what you want to say and to sum up what you want the reader to take away from the piece.