The Logic and Rhetoric of a Table of Contents

Abstract

Much like a sentence or paragraph, the table of contents for a technical report can be designed systematically on the basis of a logic and rhetoric developed from experience. Being true to technical subject matter requires a full use of four basic logical techniques normally employed in scientific problem solving: classifying, partitioning, causally subordinating, and comparing. The logical approach that uses these techniques for the division and subdivision of topics is necessary, but not sufficient, for structuring the outline of a report. As can be shown in a typical library research report, the logical approach must be supplemented by three other approaches to the problem of topic arrangement that are more distinctly rhetorical: the conventional approach that depends on the convenient habituation rendered by standard format, the pedagogical approach that depends on the effective methods and order of technical presentation suited to the reader's level of comprehension, and the empathic approach that depends on the need to keep the reader from enduring topics of excessive length or complexity. These four approaches together provide for a strategy of topic outlining.