The Six Patterns of

Organization

1. Definition: offers a detailed meaning of a word or phrase.

2. Time Order: Sequence of dates and events: traces the
events in a career or the events preceding a cultural or social
change. Process describes the steps in a sequence to explain
how something functions or occurs in real time. Both require the
author to organize the supporting details according to when events
or steps occur (or occurred) in real time.
3. Simple listing: presents, in any order, characteristics,
attitudes, studies, etc., supporting or explaining a point.
4. Cause and effect: explains how one event led to or produced
another.
5. Comparison and contrast: shows how two topics are similar
or different in order to develop the main idea.
6. Classification: describes the sub-groups that make up some
larger whole.
Definition: The topic sentence introduces a key
word or phrase, followed by one or more
meanings.
• Often the key word or phrase is in italics or
boldface.
• The paragraph fleshes out the definition by
giving an example of the word in context or
providing some general background.
1. Definition Pattern: Example
Deinstitutionalization is a mental health policy
that emerged in the 1960s. The policy re-
directed care of persons with severe mental
disorders from state mental hospitals to
community-based treatment settings. Based
on the policy of deinstitutionalization, many
state hospitals were closed and replaced by
community mental health centers or resi-
dential treatment facilities.
Time Order: Dates and Events: The
paragraph (1) includes a number of dates and events
comprising someone’s life or career or (2) traces the
events that preceded a particularly important social
change or historical occurrence.
• The pattern is likely to include transitions such as by
1972, after the fall of 1941, in the summer of 2010.
• The events are ordered according to how they
occurred in real time.
2. Dates and Events Pattern: Example

• Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s life was punctuated by a long list

of personal and professional achievements. Born in Houston, Texas
in 1936, Jordan made history in 1966 when she became the first
African American to serve in the Texas senate since 1883. On
March 21, 1967, she became the first African American to preside
over the state senate. In 1972, Jordan ran for Congress and won.
She gained national prominence during the televised Watergate
proceedings of 1974, when her eloquence impressed a national
audience. In 1976, she became the first African American to give a
keynote address before the Democratic National Convention.
Jordan retired from politics in 1979 due to ill health. She died in
1996.
Time Order Process: The paragraph explains
how something functions, happens, or develops
• A specific number of individual steps or strategies
are named and described.
• Transitions like first, second, next, and at the end
often introduce the steps or stages.
• The order in which the steps or stages are
presented is based on events in real time.
2. Process Pattern: Example
• The earliest box camera had four essential parts
—shutter, lens, box, and film—and three
essential steps. When a picture was taken, the
shutter opened, allowing light to enter. Then
the lens, a circular piece of glass, focused the
light so it passed through the box. In the third
and final step, the light-sensitive film at the
back of the box received and recorded the
image.
Simple Listing: The paragraph identifies or names a
number of specific features, characteristics or
examples that require no specific order of
presentation.
• The pattern is likely to include topic sentences with
phrases such as “several key cases,” “a number of
symptoms,” or “several studies.”
• The details give specifics about the cases, symptoms,
or studies, but they require no specific order of
presentation; they can be rearranged to suit the
author.
3. Simple Listing Pattern: Example
• There are three ways to ruin even the best
friendship. Best friends tell each other secrets
they would be unlikely to tell anyone else. Betray
that confidence, and the friendship can end
overnight. If a best friend’s romance goes down
in flames, don’t date the ex. No matter what
your friend says, he or she will not be happy
about the two of you getting together. Finally, if
your best friend confides in you about a problem,
don’t immediately come up with a solution.
Sometimes friends just want a listener, not a
problem solver.
Comparison and Contrast: The similarities
and/or differences between two topics are
discussed in detail.
• The comparison and contrast pattern has to
have two topics.
• Transitions such as in contrast, similarly,
and however turn up frequently.
• The supporting details describe similarities
and/or differences.
4. Comparison and Contrast Pattern:
Example

• Men have a harder time adjusting to

widowhood than women do. Although both
genders suffer profoundly at the loss of a
spouse, men seem to have more problems.
They have difficulty, for instance, managing the
household chores once performed by their
wives. They also have difficulty keeping in
touch with old friends because it was the wife
who, in the past, kept up the couple’s social
network.
 Widowhood is harder on men than
women.

• Men have trouble • Women are used to

running the household. maintaining a
household.

• Men aren’t used to • Women don’t have

keeping in touch with a difficulty keeping up
circle of former friends. social ties.
Cause and Effect: The paragraph explains how
one event produced or set off another event
or train of events.
• The paragraph is likely to include verbs like
caused, triggered, created and induced.
• It’s also like to include transitions such as
consequently, as a result, due to and in
response.
5. Cause-and-Effect Pattern:
Example
• In 2001 Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who took part in
the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, was released from prison.
Megrahi’s act had resulted in the death of all 259
people on board, and he had been sentenced to
life. However, because he was suffering from
incurable prostate cancer the Scottish Judge
Kenny MacAskill decided Megrahi was deserving
of compassionate release. According to
MacAskill, Megrahi’s condition obliged the court
to show mercy, especially since the man would
soon be judged by a “higher power.”
Classification: The topic sentence describes how
some larger group can be broken down into smaller
subgroups.
• topic sentences include words like categories and
subgroups.
• topic sentence use verbs like broken down into,
analyzed, or divided.
6. Classification Pattern: Example
• The animal kingdom is divided up into groups
called phyla (phylum is the singular.) Single-celled
animals like amoeba, for instance, belong to the
phylum called Protozoa while sponges belong to
the category labeled Porifera, and round worms
are classified as Nemanthelminthes. Clams and
snails belong to the category called Mollusca, and
insects are grouped under the heading
Arthropoda. And what category are humans in?
Humans, along with fish, birds and reptiles,
belong to the category Chordata.
Now test your understanding
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested by
each sentence and explain what it was about the
sentence that guided your choice:
1. Changing a person’s attitude is not easy, but it can
be done and there are several techniques that
can successfully be used to bring about change.
2. As first ladies go, no two were more distinctly
different from one another than Jacqueline Kennedy
and Patricia Nixon.
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs
Sentence 1 is cause and effect because it
• emphasizes how one thing produces, or brings
about, another.

Sentence 2 is comparison and contrast because it

• introduces two different topics, Jacqueline
Kennedy and Patricia Nixon.
• points out how they differ.
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested by
each sentence:
3. In the corporate world, the term “means-end
analysis” refers to analyzing a task in order to
discover the method of action that would get
you most quickly to your final goal.
4. Depending on the method of division, glaciers
can be grouped into three or four different
categories.
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs
Sentence 3 suggests the definition pattern because
• the opening phrase “means-end analysis” is followed by a
restatement of the phrase’s meaning.
• quotation marks (could also be italics or boldface) highlight the
opening phrase.
• the verb “refers” suggests a definition pattern will follow.

Sentence 4 suggests the classification pattern because

• it explains how some larger whole can be sub-divided into smaller
groups.
• combines the words “division,” “categories,” and “grouped” in the
same sentence.
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs
Identify the pattern of organization suggested
by each sentence:
5. Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has
had a long and generally sinister career.
6. In order to remember new information for
more than a few minutes, the human brain
requires that several steps be completed in the
following order.
Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs

Sentence 5 suggests a sequence of dates and events

pattern because
• the topic sentence focuses on Putin’s career.
• it is impossible to discuss a “long career,” even a
sinister one, without discussing the dates and events
that make up the career.

Sentence 6 suggests a process pattern because

• the topic sentence explains how something happens.
• the topic sentence uses the phrase “a certain number
of different steps.”
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs

Identify the pattern of organization

suggested by this sentence:

7. There are a number of specific things

you should not do when preparing to buy
a new or used car.
 Finishing Up: Recognizing Patterns of
Organization in Paragraphs

Sentence 7 is simple listing because

• the phrase “a number of specific things”

appears in the topic sentence.
• the order in which those “things” are
explained does not seem important.
 Atmosphere
(n.)

Ex. Meteoroids burn up as they pass through Earth's atmosphere.

 Radiation
(n.)

• Ex. She was exposed to high levels of radiation.

 Colonize
(V.)

- Colonize: means to take control of (a people or area) especially

as an extension of state power
 Geothermal
(adj.)

Ex. On land, geothermal energy is one of the most promising global

technologies.