Increasing order of importance (also called climactic order) presents the point of least importance first and builds, point by point, to the most important idea at the end. The method is effective when the conclusion is not the anticipated one or is not an agreeable or popular one. Another advantage of the method is that the readers finish the piece with the main point fresh in their minds.
The disadvantage of the method of increasing order of importance is that it begins weakly, with the least important information. However, the method can be used to great effect when the writer skillfully leads readers to the final important detail and leaves them at that high point.
One of the many ill effects of alcohol, perhaps the least important—though this might sound odd at first—is its effect on the body. To be sure, alcohol rots the liver and destroys the brain. But that's the business of the individual. This is a free country, and the choice to destroy oneself is an individual matter. Or it would be if there were not other considerations, the family being one. More important than what alcohol does to the individual is what it does to the family of the alcoholic. In the majority of cases, it leads to the dissolution of the alcoholic's family, with all of the misery that divorce entails, especially for children. And even if alcoholism doesn't lead finally to divorce, it still inevitably causes misery to the other family members, who are guilty only of tolerating the behavior of the drunken mother or father. But most important by far—at least from society's point of view—is the collective effect of alcoholism on the nation at large. Statis tics show that, taken together, the nation's alcoholics significantly reduce American productivity on the one hand (because of days absent and work done shoddily) and significantly increase the cost of medical insurance and care on the other. For all of these reasons, but especially the last, it seems to me that we should not tolerate excessive drinking one day more.
— Barry J. Gillin
