Ordination is an analytical process whereby the elements of vegetation, species and stands, are ordered in such a manner that the relationships between the elements and the relationships of the elements to the environmental factors controlling them are evinced. Ordination techniques are described as an aid to the understanding of ordination in general, with emphasis on indirect gradient ordination and its inherent problems. Indirect gradient ordination techniques order vegetation elements along undefined scales. Differences between elements appear along those scales, but, in general, ecological interpretation of these differences is not possible. When indirect gradient ordination techniques have been applied to test data sets from which certain results are expected, distorted ordinations result. Distortion in indirect gradient ordination was investigated and a technique less subject to distortion was developed that maintains a direct relationship between ecological differences between vegetation elements and ordination distances between those elements. The procedure was tested through application to species joint occurrence data (presence and absence data) from two adjacent physiographic regions, the Cumberland Plateau and the Ridge and Valley regions of Tennessee. Occurrence data of commercial forest species were compiled from United States Department of Agriculture-Forest Service forest resources inventory data.