Why worry about structure?

Clear structure helps a reader find information, and makes the work more approachable, because they can tackle it one clearly flagged section at a time. A paper document is thought of in sections, one after the other (though the reader may not use it that way). A website is more inherently interconnected and nonlinear, and tight control of structure is all the more important. Which page leads to which? How are the menus placed?

So – we must think about structure.

If the document is to be read through from beginning to end, each section must follow the earlier ones in a logical way, with earlier sections preparing the way for later ones.

So – we must think about structure.

If readers are going to skip through the document or website looking for bits of interest, the grouping of topics and the resulting headings (or link text) must give a good indication of where to find what.

So – we must think about structure.

If we have a large writing task and we want to break it up into manageable chunks, we must have a plan.

So – we must think about structure.