Using the concept of macrostructures to make non-fiction books easier to understand and remember

I’ve just published a blog post on using the concept of macrostructures to make non-fiction books easier to understand and remember.

Summary

The central idea of the macrostructures concept is that a book, or any other form of communication, is composed of many different elements organised across multiple levels of detail and importance. This has important implications for authors.

Macrostructures have five functions:

• organising complex information

• reducing complex information

• aiding the efficient storage and use of complex information

• constructing new meaning

• relating the parts to the whole.

The construction of new meaning helps to add depth to the message of a book. The other four functions all help readers to understand, engage with and remember non-fiction books more effectively.

Macrostructural content can include:

• summaries

• discussions about the importance of particular material

• the generation of a rule or principle from specific examples

• the organisation of elements into a more structured whole

• the delivering of interpretations

• the discussion of implications

• the drawing of conclusions.

There are seven ways in which microstructures can be transformed into macrostructures: keep, delete, condense, generalise, organise, create and amend. There is also one way in which a macrostructure can be transformed into a microstructure: elaboration.

The goal of macrostructures is transform complicated information into a format that readers find easier to understand and hold on to. Therefore it’s important that non-fiction authors spend time on creating macrostructures that are helpful to readers.

There are four strategies that authors can follow to create better macrostructures:

• providing better summaries.

• highlighting critical parts of the text.

• ensuring local coherence and global coherence.

• showing how the parts relate to the whole.

Please do get in touch if you have any comments or thoughts about the blog post.

Francis

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Francis Miller