It was devised to address deficiencies in general classification schemes in dealing with education.
Foiskett and Foskett observe: "The basic idea of facets is separate grouping of each major division of a subject.".
Letters are arranged so that vowels and consonants alternate, so that the eventual notation will appear as a syllable.
[3] As originally implemented, the shelf arrangement produced by the classification was supplemented by an indexed card catalogue, where index entries were created for each element in the classmark, in reverse order from the classification.
The example Foskett and Foskett gave was:[2] "Each entry refers the reader to the part of the classified section, Rid, where all entries on Secondary modern school are filed.".