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Plain language: organizing your ideas

Clear, organized thinking produces clear, logical writing. Choose the information to include and to leave out. Then divide your information into main and secondary points. Cut points and information not clearly relevant to your King County program or project.

Organize your material so it flows logically from your reader's point of view. Organize your material so your readers can extract what they want in the shortest possible time. Anticipate answers to reader questions: So what? How does this affect me?

Usually, make your main point easy to find--at the beginning of your document. Tell your readers early: what your conclusion is, what you want them to do, or whatever your main purpose is for your King County document. By getting the most important information up front, your readers can find what is crucial to them and then decide how much more detail they want.

Organize the rest of your document into sections of related information. Those sections can range from a single paragraph to several pages of short paragraphs. Help your readers move from section to section with headings and subheadings about the content in each section or block of related information. Try to start each section by stating its main point.

Here's a useful way to organize most documents:

  • Message. First, summarize the most important question or issue of interest to your readers. Give the punch line--your major conclusions. And tell your readers quickly and clearly what follows.
  • Action. Second, recommend what your readers should do with your message--the follow-up actions they should take. Or tell your readers what King County is going to do next.
  • Details. Third, give the necessary details, omitting the obvious information. Answer your readers' probable how and why questions. And give the relevant who, what, where, when and how much information--if you didn't include those details in the opening summary message or action statement.
  • Evidence. Fourth, add optional material, enclosures or attachments to support your conclusions, recommendations and details.

Within the details, try to organize your information in a consistent way, such as one of the following:

  • most important to least important
  • problem - cause - solution
  • chronological order
  • questions and answers
  • general to specific
  • specific to general
  • step-by-step.

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To King County Editorial Style Manual

Plain-language writing guide