Reading :: The Pyramid Principle

 The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking

By Barbara Minto

I’ve been using variations of the Minto Pyramid ever since I took a proposal writing class from Rich Freed in 1994 or 1995, during my first year in the Iowa State University Ph.D. program. Rich used the pyramid principle for two things: the methodology section (where we focused on “how”) and the qualifications section (where we focused on “why”). I credit this class with helping me to understand task decomposition. It made a big impression on me!

In fact, I’ve been using the Minto Pyramid for a few years now in my one-day workshops to help people understand how to break complex information into smaller pieces. I typically have attendees read short explainers, which are free on the Web. But eventually I decided to read the source material: Minto’s book.

Of course, the book is more complicated than the explainers. Published in 1987 for a general audience, it reads as more rigid and ideological than its adaptations have been. Minto insists that “there are only four possible logical ways in which to order a set of ideas” (deductively, chronologically, structurally, and comparatively; p.16) and her advice throughout the book is primarily focused on using pyramids to produce these logical orders. This advice includes how one sketches out relationships between ideas, checks the logic of these relationships, signals it in the text, writes it into narratives, and checks to make sure that pyramids are mutually exclusive and comprehensively exhaustive (MECE).

I found it useful, but also a bit overwhelming, and perhaps too rigid to account for the many way in which texts can exist. If you’re a hardcore fan of the Minto pyramid, certainly pick it up. But if you just want to use the MP as a tool for improving your writing, I think you can stick to the explainers.