Technical writing has its mechanical aspects that need to be mastered. A technical communicator must know how to use the language effectively as well as various software products to produce acceptable technical documents.

But I wish that was all there is to it to technical communication. The hardest part of writing a document actually comes before the writer even writes the first word.

Organizing and presenting the information in a practical way that makes sense is Job Number One. Otherwise no one would have any use for a technical document.

If you are documenting a building, are you going to introduce it one floor at a time?

Or are you going to present the software information in terms of its cost and different payment packages?

If you are writing a manual about spiders, are you going to introduce them in terms of their size and location?

Richard Saul Wurman, a legendary technical communicator who has written extensively about the issue, has introduced the LATCH method, an acronym made up of the first letters of the following 5 information organization principles:

1) Location
2) Alphabet
3) Time
4) Category
5) Hierarchy

Wurman claims that ANY INFORMATION can be categorized neatly along these 5 dimensions and he may be right about that. It’s a great tool to use when you are trying to decide how to make sense of any subject matter.

For example, if you’re writing a City Guide, you can of course use L (Location) easily and divide the guide into districts, neighborhoods, etc.

Once you do that, you can switch to T (Time) perhaps and talk about what is “old and historic” and what’s “brand new” in every location.

How about C (Category)? “Young” versus “Old”? Or “Historic” versus “Modern”?

As one can image, the options are numerous.

So the next time you need to organize information, it might save you time and energy to start with LATCH dimensions and see which ones serve your documentation goal the best.