• first-stage thinking:
gathering information;
• second-stage thinking:
organising the information.
Use mindmaps to help you gather information, and the pyramid
principle to help you organise it into a coherent structure.
Summarising and grouping
Imagine speaking your message to the reader. What question
will it provoke in their mind? The question should be one of
three:
• ‘Why?’
• ‘How?’
• ‘Which ones?’
You must have at least two answers to the question. Try to have
no more than six. Write your answers to that question as key
points. All your key points must be sentences. You should be able
to align each key point to a group of ideas on your mindmap.
Creating key points
Your key points should all be of the same kind.
• ‘Why?’
Reasons, benefits, causes
• ‘How?’
Procedures, process steps
• ‘Which ones?’
Items, categories, factors
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144 Improve your Communication Skills
For each key point, ask what question it provokes: ‘Why?’, ‘How?’
or ‘Which ones?’ Identify the answers to that question and write
these as sub-points. Repeat if necessary for each sub-point to
create minor points. For every question, you must have more
than one answer.
Building the pyramid
The result of this question-and-answer process is a pyramid
structure (Figure 8.1).
Building pyramids: essential principles
• Every idea must be a sentence.
• Each idea must summarise the ideas grouped beneath it.
• Each idea within a group is an answer to the question
provoked by the summarising idea.
Message
Key point
Key point
Key point
Sub-
point
Sub-
point
Minor
point
Minor
point
Minor
point
Minor
point
Sub-
point
Sub-
point
Sub-
point
Sub-
point
Figure 8.1
Building a pyramid
( c) 2011 Kogan Page L imited, All Rights Reserved.
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