3 ideas
Organize any communication so that ideas form a pyramid: a single governing thought at the top, supported by grouped ideas beneath it, each of which is itself supported by lower-level ideas. Every idea must summarize the ideas grouped below it, and ideas in each group must be the same kind and logically ordered.
Open any document by establishing the Situation (uncontested facts the reader accepts), introducing a Complication (something that disturbs the situation), which provokes the Question, to which the document's main point is the Answer. This narrative sequence anchors the reader before the analysis begins, ensuring the central message lands on a prepared mind.
Readers can only absorb ideas efficiently when given the main conclusion first and the supporting detail second, because the mind automatically tries to group and summarize incoming information into a structure. Presenting conclusions before reasoning therefore reduces the reader's effort and prevents misinterpretation, even when the writer discovered the conclusion last.