Tiny Victories — Structure and Organizing

Another post in a series about communications, writing, editing, and plain language

by Laura Edlund

(Written and posted to LinkedIn April 4, 2025; adapted for website April 6, 2025)  

First the victory: A client says, “Great job on reducing the length … and restructuring the order. The sequence … is logical and provides more clarity.”

So what was the problem? What was the solution?

The communication had structural challenges—not a house tipping over or a bridge sagging but instead LOTS of information, an unclear path through it, circling back, and bogging down, and a super long overview.

Here are three approaches that I’ve used over many years of editing. Plus scissors and guillotines!

Approach 1
One oft-recommended approach is to review all headings in Microsoft Word’s “Outline” view, revise the heading order, and revise the whole. That can help (1) if each heading does, in fact, reflect the text after the heading and (2) if the headings relate well to the audience needs and the purpose. But sometimes the headings don’t do either or both. Some headings are unclear, too generic, or not updated. Those headings need fixing now or later.

Approach 2
Another approach is to read the whole again in detail, note the main ideas and groups of information (on sticky notes, recipe cards, graph paper, or chalk board—whatever works for you), and physically arrange and rearrange groupings to find an effective order. Take a photo.

Then, with the new order, write a summary—like a plain language summary, executive summary, or abstract—even if you don’t need that summary in the final communication. This is your test order.

Question the new test order: Does it work? Why? Why not? Poke holes in it. Fix it. Evaluate it. Take a photo of the order again.

Then use your new and fixed-up order to implement the changes to revise the whole document and write effective headings as you go.

While you are doing that, cut the repetitions or keep only the repetitions that are useful to the audience and purpose. Then go back and revise the overview to consider if the restructuring works. Go back to repeat any steps if needed.

Finally, revise the summary so that it reflects the final body of the communication. Side note: Summaries as published should always be double-checked to make sure they reflect the actual content.

Approach 3
Still another approach is to take a draft, print out a hard copy, and read it on paper while highlighting all main ideas and groupings of information. Then, on the hard copy, for each group of information, write in highlighter the page number so that you will know the original page number when you cut the document apart. (Yes, literally, cut; this is hands-on, but it works.)

Cut the document apart with scissors or a guillotine.

Then physically arrange and rearrange groupings to find an effective order. You might pin chunks of text to a bulletin board, tape them to a wall, or organize them on the floor and down the hall.

As you work, you might find text that repeats, circles back, goes nowhere, or goes where no-one wants it to go (really), so keep those text chunks to the side.

When you have an order that you think is final, take and keep a colour photo of the “final” order. (The colour is so that you can see the highlights about what text chunks come from where.) Also, keep the text chunks that do NOT fit the new order; you might need them later or need to explain your choices.

Then write the summary, evaluate it, poke holes in it, fix it, etc. Then take a photo of the order again. Then you can use the new, fixed-up order to refer to the original page numbers and order AND revise the whole document.

Ta da! Tiny victory
For more tiny victories in editing, writing, communications, and plain language, see my other blog posts on my web site or my LinkedIn page.