Redaction: When Mormon says that he writes again we understand that he has written before. We do have one other letter, but we should not presume that Moroni has included all of the letters he received from his father. While that is possible, it is also possible that he has selected two of several letters written to him. What that tells us is that we cannot be certain from position only that this letter followed the previous one. Moroni could have received this letter prior to the one from the last chapter, and simply added it later.
The subject matter of the letter, however, does appear to come from a later time period. The military situation Mormon describes at the end of chapter 8 is increased in this letter, suggesting that it does come later in time. We also have the problem of why Moroni adds this particular letter. The last letter at least dealt with a point of doctrine that had some tangential relationship to the rest of the text he had entered. This chapter is not tied to any liturgical theme. It is purely historical. However, it is tied to that very last information in the last letter.
A reconstruction of Moroni’s creation of his book would therefore have the previous chapter being added because of its theme. At the end of that letter, Moroni’s attention is turned to the historical events described at the end of that letter, and his next inclusion therefore turns on that piece. Once again, we see Moroni working without a guiding outline. His decision to include the current letter is not dictated by an overarching purpose for his whole book, but rather on a conceptual shift contained at the end of an inserted letter. His focus is not on the whole, but on the instance.