Structure is a vital component of your writing: it's the bones. Without bones to support your words, they collapse into a blob of jelly.
How do you arrive at a structure?
Sometimes it's handed to you; especially if it's copy that you're writing for a client. You have a clear idea of the messages that you want to get across, and the structure consists of those messages and the links between them.
At other times, you'll outline the messages you want to deliver, and will work from that. Or you may have no idea of what you want to say, so you write a draft and look for a structure. This is outlining after the fact, after you've written.
If a piece of writing isn't working, look at the structure. List the items that you've developed in each paragraph, and then arrange the items so that they:
* Develop a theme; or
* Are chronological; or
* Are categorized; or
* Build a persuasive argument.
In your introduction, tell your reader what the structure is. This has been described as "tell them what you're going to tell them." In your conclusion, you sum up by reminding the reader about the structure: "tell them what you told them."
When you're clear about the structure of a piece of writing, you make the reader's job easier.
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