Sequential Organization

Consider the following sentence:

You woke up this morning, checked a message on your phone, and then went to the hospital for an appointment.

It's a basic narrative of largely unrelated events; now consider it slightly altered:

You were awakened by a message on your phone this morning informing you the time of your appointment had been moved up.

It's the same chain of events – wake up, message, hospital – but they are no longer unrelated. Each one depends on and impacts the other. Both of these represent different methods of Sequential organization (Chronological and Cause & Effect, respectively). Sequential methods of organization develop different relationships between the events in question and changes the way the narrative in question develops. The individual methods are:

• Chronological: The simplest method, and by extension, the weakest. All Chronological organization does is identify things happened in a certain order but does not identify any relationships outside of their sequence in time. The statement “I had cereal for breakfast and salad for lunch” is Chronological, but so is saying you ate green beans the day before an earthquake. Just because the event occur in sequence does not mean there is a relationship between them, or, in other words, correlation does not imply causation. While Chronological is a method of organization, there's almost always a better approach out there.
• Cause & Effect: Cause & Effect identifies the causal relationship between events. It fills in the gaps in Chronological by identifying and describing the relationship between the events. The events in question do not have to occur naturally, but can reflect the decisions we make based on our situations. Returning to the meals example, the statement “I had eggs for breakfast, and decided to have salad because it would have fewer carbs and calories,” now identifies a relationship between the two events, namely, nutritional content.
• Procedural: Rather than discuss what has happened or what will happen, Procedural gives direction and instruction: it says certain things have to be done in a specific order to reach a desired end. It therefore is not appropriate for events that naturally occur: Cause and Effect can occur naturally, regardless of our interaction. No matter what, your Ikea bed is not going to assemble itself.
• Problem to Solution: Problem to Solution seems straight forward: take time identifying and discussing a problem, and then follow it by discussing a possible solution. This simplicity, however, can be deceptive because it is easy to just divide an essay into two halves and call it good. When organizing with Problem to Solution, it is a good idea to consider what methods can be used in tandem to complement the broader Problem to Solution. A common approach is to use Cause & Effect in the Problem half, and Procedural in the Solution half.

As for Transitions, they need to reflect the fact the events are related in the way specified by the method. Merely saying “next”, “after”, or “and then” with nothing else only indicates two events occurred at different times and can suggest Cum Hoc or Post Hoc fallacies (i.e. suggesting a causal relationship where none exists). This is why Chronological alone can be weak: it doesn't naturally make these connections or relationships.

However, “and then” and “next” and “after” are not taboo: they just need to be used carefully, ideally in tandem with other words and phrases that complicate the meaning and identify the relationships in question. This means Sequential Organization is not just found in the order and transitions, but in the discussions of how the events are related: stepping outside of the events themselves to explain and explore just why the connections are logical and reasonable. A Cause & Effect piece should not just discuss the events, but should focus on the relationship, and you need more than a transition to do that. Similarly, a Procedural piece will need to not only specify the order, but make it clear why that order is important and what could happen in one were to deviate from it.