The Pyramid Principle of Organizing

Think back to the Dialogue with the Reader Worksheet that you developed as part of your second assignment.

Just as you had arrived at your main message through your Dialogue with the Reader, now you can continue the question-and-answer technique to develop the next level of categories for your report. By doing this, you are moving from preliminary planning to the outlining phase of the planning process.

Expanding your Dialogue with the Reader into a pyramid form allows you to accomplish some important tasks as a report writer:

• Summarize your ideas before giving the details. This gives your reader some context to work with and a rationale behind the organization of your information. This is the function of the main message: it states the most significant idea of the report.
• Arrange your ideas to answer your reader’s questions about your main message. Arranging refers to grouping and sequencing. The pyramid principle of organizing ensures that you answer reader questions in a logical sequence and explain your main message. Because one of your readers’ basic needs is to get answers to their questions, your job is to anticipate those questions and address them.
• Demonstrate the logical relationships between your ideas. The topics in your report will form meaningful groupings, setting up a logical story line. Integrating your ideas in this way makes the report more readily understood and accepted by your reader.