The chronological order It is the form of organization that obeys the logical succession of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years or centuries, as appropriate. This order can be forward (from past to present) or reverse (from present to past).
The word chronological comes from the union of the Greek words chronos (χρόνος) which means “time” and logos (λóγος) which means “word” or “thought”. Therefore, the chronological is what is thought according to time and obeys the passing of time.
Examples of chronological order
- Classification of periodicals in a library it is carried out according to the month and year of publication, going from the oldest to the most modern in strict chronological order.
- The ordering of journalistic material in a newspaper library or in the archives of major newspapers, it follows the chronological order of the day, month and year of publication of each archived printed copy.
- Medical histories In hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices, it registers in chronological order the medical events of the patient (illnesses, treatments, surgical interventions, specialized consultations), to have details of the evolution of their health over time.
- Diary entries, a correspondence, a historical document and many fictional texts obey a real or intended chronological sense, or often subvert it to force the reader to recompose it and thus restore the temporal order of the events narrated.
- Bank transaction records (withdrawals, deposits, payments, purchases, transfers) are recorded according to the strict chronological order in which they were made.
- The events narrated in a biography They are usually recomposed and arranged according to the passage of time, since the idea is to convey in a story the events of the biographer’s real life.
- The content of agendas, calendars and planners They follow the chronological order of the year, as they serve to structure and organize upcoming activities as the days go by.
- The entries of a Curriculum vitae They are organized in reverse chronological order: going from the most recent job or educational descriptions to the oldest, to allow the potential employer to get an idea of the life and career path of the applicant.
- Biological Evolutionary Trees They are representations of the chronological evolution of life, which graph or explain evolution according to its various stages orchestrated in time and classified into different periods.
- The journalistic reports they reconstruct a series of events or specific events based on their chronological linearity, that is, respecting the temporal order in which they occurred. Sometimes this order can be reversed, when trying to narrate the antecedents of a certain event.
- The educational structure It is governed by chronological order, since it is attached to the growth of children and young people and accompanies their natural development. The succession of the “degrees” or “levels” is due to the temporal succession of the years, but also to the acquisition of a certain set of knowledge, which is why a student can “repeat” or “fall behind” with respect to their cohort.
- The clocks, especially the needle ones, represent a cyclical ordering of time. The succession of signs inside (Roman numerals, Arabic numerals or other symbols) is governed by chronological order.
- Facebook posts and other social networks are ordered according to criteria of relevance and affective selection, but then they are ordered in reverse chronological order: going from the most recently published content to the oldest.
- Editions of a book They are numbered according to their production, since they belong to a finite and counted print run, and this numbering also obeys a chronological criterion: it accounts for the temporal sequence in which the copies were printed and manufactured. And in turn, each edition is distinguished from the others chronologically: according to the year in which they were made.
- Correspondence compilations They are arranged chronologically so that the reader can recompose the exchange of letters without leaving room for confusion, going from the oldest letter to the most recent.
- The exhibitions of works of art They can be ordered according to variable curatorial criteria, but often, when looking to give an overview of a specific author or period, they are ordered according to their year of production or appearance.
- Telephone service bills They are usually broken down in chronological order, so that the user can know how long each call lasted and knows in what order they were made.
- The content of emails It is generally arranged chronologically, to be able to “stay up to date”, that is, to see the most recent first and the oldest last. In the same way, notice boards and other digital correspondence and communication services operate, such as chats.
- The national monuments they often contain information arranged chronologically, such as birth and death dates, dates of battles, events of national and political interest, always ordered from the oldest to the most recent date. The same is true of tombstones and obituaries.
- The artistic anthologies, whether of poetic texts, of musical themes or of any other nature, they often respond to a chronological criterion that tells the reader of the different periods in which the artistic life of the author can be ordered or even the periods of production of a movement artistic (for example: romanticism, impressionism, rock n ‘roll, socialist realism, etc.)