Sorting alphabetically is a useful and effective way of organizing the words, information and objects we use at school, at work or for personal use. Whether you're in the process of sorting out important documents or your huge record collection, alphabetical order rules can hide pitfalls, they don't stop with knowing the order of the letters of the alphabet. Follow these steps to alphabetize the right way.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Part 1: Prepare the Information to Alphabetically
Step 1. Arrange the information or objects in front of you so that they are all visible
Seeing all the data you need to put in alphabetical order will speed up the process and reduce the likelihood of running into any hitches.
- If you are reordering data on a computer, it may be useful to create a new file or folder to put everything in alphabetical order to avoid confusion.
- If you are alphabetizing items, such as records or books, take them out of shelves or cabinets so you can see the names more easily.
Step 2. Create an open and accessible space where you can put all the objects and information you want to sort alphabetically
Avoid clutter and clutter by preparing a space to put your data or objects when sorting alphabetically.
Step 3. Decide if you want to put your data or objects in alphabetical order by name, title or other system of your choice
Method 2 of 2: Part 2: Alphabetize the Information
Step 1. Put the element that starts with the letter “A” at the beginning and make sure you get to the “Z” by passing through all the letters of the alphabet
Step 2. Compare the first letter of the first word
- Place two items next to each other to determine which of the two comes first in the alphabet.
- First choose the one that comes closest to the beginning of the alphabet ("A"), and have it followed by the one that comes next in the alphabet.
Step 3. Compare the next letter in words starting with the same letter
- For example, if the first two letters in one word are "Am" and the first two letters in the other word are "An", put "Am" before "An".
- Keep comparing the next letter in the word if the words have the same consecutive letters, until you find a difference. Put the word that has the letter that appears first in the alphabet before the other word.
- If you get to the point where there are no more letters to compare between words, the word with the shortest string of letters goes first.
- If the first words in two elements are the same, look at how the next word is written to determine which order to adopt.
Step 4. Sort people's names by the last name followed by the first name and then the middle name or the initial of the middle name
- If you put books or documents in alphabetical order, it will be easier to find them by going back to the surname of the author.
- For example, "Mario T. Bianchi" will be "Bianchi, Mario T." and will go before "Bianchi, Mario V.", which in any case will be ordered before "Bianchi, Paolo T."
Step 5. Words (or two initials next to each other) that contain a hyphen should be treated as one word, not two
Step 6. Consider the numbers in letters to sort alphabetically
For example, "1984" must be ordered as if it were spelled "One thousand nine hundred and eighty-four".
Step 7. Write the system modes you use to sort alphabetically
If you need to reorder a large amount of data or objects, a written reminder will help other people maintain and follow that system, and will be useful in case you forget the sort order.
Advice
- Ignore the articulations at the beginning of the titles. You can also ignore the words "a", "a" or "the", "the", etc., if they are at the beginning of a title, as they are very common and can be confusing when searching for information. sorted alphabetically.
- Keep a copy of the alphabet in front of you or next to the items you're ordering so you don't lose the thread.
