Week 4 - Designing pages

Designing Pages
Chapter 6
Technical Report Writing Today (Tenth Edition)
Daniel Riordan
Emeritus Professor of English
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Copyright © 2014 Wadsworth. All Rights Reserved. 6-1

Copyright © 2014 Houghton Mifflin. All Rights Reserved. 6-2
Chapter Contents
Chapter 6 In a Nutshell
 Using Visual Features to Revel Contents
 Using Text Features to Convey Meaning
 Developing a Style Sheet
 Focus on Color

Using Visual Features to
Reveal Content
The visual features that reveal content are white space and
chunks; bullets; head systems; and headers, pagination,
and rules.
 White Space and Chunks
white space is the key visual feature of a
document;
white is space is any where there is no text or visual
aid;
white space creates chunks;
chunks are blocks of text that reveal logical structure.

Reveal Content: Cont.
chunks are blocks of text that reveal logical structure;
chunks can also indicate hierarchy;
See Figure 6.1 One Chunk Report-an email message produced as
one chunk:
(the number of points in the message is not clear).
See Figure 6.2 Three-Chunk Report-the same message with chunks:
(the number of points in the message is clear).
See Figure 6.3 Hierarchy in Chunk Report-the message shows white
space that creates a chunk of subordinate points.

 Report Bullets
bullets emphasize list items;
numbers provides a greater emphasize of list items.
See Figure 6.4 Bulleted List-notice the bullets emphasize the list items,
causing the reader to focus on the items.
 Head Systems
head indicates the contents of the section that follows.
head system is a pattern of heads (called levels) to indicate both
the content and the relationship (hierarchy) of the sections in the
document.
Copyright © 2014 Wadsworth. All Rights Reserved.
6-5

See Figure 6.5 Ways to indicate Hierarchy-notice how heads help
readers find information and the head system indicates the hierarchical
structure of the content.
See Figure 6.6 Two Level of Heads-notice
level 1 is on the left margin, indicating a major division of he
document;
level 2 is indented, indicating a subdivision of the major
division.

Head systems have two basic styles (open and closed);
an open system uses only the position and size of the heads;
a closed system uses a number arrangement to indicate
hierarchy.
See Figure 6.7 Open System-notice the position and size of heads.
See Figure 6.8 Closed System- notice the use of numbers that indicate
hierarchy.

 Headers or Footers, Pagination, and Rules
headers or footers appear tin the upper or lower margins of a page;
they usually name the section of the document for the reader:
page numbers usually appear at the top right or top left of he page
(depending on whether the page is a right-hand or left-hand page) or
bottom center of the page;
Rules, or lines on the page, act like heads (they divide text into
identifiable section and an indicate hierarchy).
(See Figure 6.9 Basic Page Parts.)

Using Text to
Convey Meaning
Text features are used top convey meaning are
highlighters, font, font size, leading, columns and line
length, and justification.
Text features are used
 to emphasize words or groups of words;
 to give the text a certain personality.

Using Text to
Convey Meaning: Cont.
 Highlighters
Highlighters focus the reader’s attention on an idea by
making a word or phrase stand out:
types of highlighters-common highlighters are
Boldface
Italics
ALL CAPS
Vertical lists
Quotation marks

Using Text to
use highlighters to help your readers-give the highlighter a function:
for example, when you highlight (bold) a word to indicate a
specific meaning, you have set up a convention that readers
will look for (you have defined a guide rule for your
document).
other ways to use highlighters-consider
using italics to emphasize a word that you will
define;
using quotation marks to introduce a word used
ironically or to indicate a special usage;

Using Text to
using all caps as a variant of boldface, usually for short
phrases or sentences;
using vertical lists to emphasize individual items in the
list.
 Font, Font Size, Leading, Columns and Line Length, and
Justification
Font-or type face; fonts that routinely appear in report are
Times
Helvetic
Palatino
6-12

Using Text to
font size-font size is the height of letters and is measured in points:
 common text sizes are 9, 10,and 12 points;
 common heading sizes are 14, 18, and 24 points;
 most magazines use 10-point type;
 most reports use 12 point type.
(See Figure 6.10 Test Features.)
leading-leading is the amount of space between lines
and is measure in points and is always greater than the font size:

Using Text to
columns-columns are vertical lines of type:
 normal typed page is just one wide column;
 reports seldom require more than two columns;
 reports and manuals with several graphics usually have two columns.
justification-justification is aligning the first or last letters of the lines of a
column:
left justified (the first letter of each line starts at the left margin);
right justified (the letters that end lines are aligned at the right margin).
(research shows that ragged-right text reads more easily than right-
justified text (Felker).
(See Figure 6.10 Text Features.)
6-14

Using Text to
 Combining Features to Orchestrate the Text for Readers
analyze: identify the rhetorical clusters in your document-rhetorical
clusters are visual and verbal elements tht help the reader interpret the
content in a certain way:
rhetorical clusters include
 titles;
 heads;
 visuals;
 captions;
 paragraphs;
 warnings;
 numbers;
 types of links.

Using Text to
standardize: give each text or visual feature a purpose-use highlighting (such
as bold type).
the reader will quickly interpret the cluster, helping them with the
contents of the document.
be consistent: treat all like items consistently throughout the document-repeat
the design of any item, and that repetition sets up the expectation of readers.
once the expectation is set up, readers look for the same item to
cue them to interpret the content.
be neat: align items-create a system of margins and start similar features at the
same margin.
(See Figure 6.11 Ineffective Versus Effective Use of Edges.)

Using Text to
learn: use the design tips of experts-designers have researched many features
to determine what is most effective.
design tips include
1. use top-to bottom orientation to gain emphasis (Sevilla);
2. use brightness to gain emphasis (Sevilla);
3. use larger-to-smaller orientation (Sadowski)
(Figure 6.12);
4. use left-to right orientation (Rubens) (Figure 6.13);
5. place visuals so that they move readers’ attention
from left to right (Rubens; Xerox) (Figure 6.14);
6. in a multiple page document, “hang” items from the top
margin (Cook and Kellogg) (Figure 6.15);
7. learn to use color effectively (“Focus on Color,”
pages 171-178).

Using Text to
Focus on Ethical Design
Design Honestly. Suppose that in a progress report you must discuss whether your department has
met its production goal. The page-formatting techniques you use could either aid or hinder the reader’s
perception of the truth. For instance, you might use a boldfaced head to call attention to the
department’s success:
Widget Line Exceeds Goals. Once again this month, our widget line has exceeded
production goals, this time by 18%.
Conversely, to downplay poor performance, you might use a more subdued format, one without
boldface and a head with a vague phrase:
Final Comments. Great strides have been made in resolving previous difficulties in
meeting monthly production goals. This month’s achievement is nearly equal to
expectations.
If reader misunderstanding could have significant consequences, however, your use of “Final
Comments” is actually a refusal to take responsibility for telling the stakeholder what he or she needs.
(See page 150)
Copyright © 2004 Houghton Mifflin. All Rights Reserved.
6-18

Developing a Style Sheet
To remain consistent, develop a style sheet (a list of specifications
for each element in your documents);
for example, for a two page memo, a style sheet would be
quite short:
 margins: inch margin on all four sides;
 line treatment: no justification;
 spacing within text: single-space within
paragraphs, double-space between
paragraphs;
 heads: heads flush left and boldfaced,
triple-space above heads, and double
space bellow.

Developing a Style Sheet: Cont.
for a more complicated document, a style sheet world be more
detailed, adding
 a multilevel system of heads;
 page numbers;
 rules for page top and bottom;
 rules offset visuals;
 captions for visuals
 headers and footers;
 lists.

Developing a Style Sheet: Cont.
(See Figure 6.16 Sample Template.)
(See Figure 6.17 Two Column Design.)
(See Figure 6.18 One Column Design.)
Worksheet for a Style Sheet (page 160).

Focus on Color
 Effects Produced by Color Relationships
The color wheel and visibility –the key concepts is the color wheel,
which provides a way to see how colors elate to one another;
Value affects visibility of individual hues-a color’s relationship with
itself.
How colors can be used in documents-color has four functions in
documents:
 to make text stand out;
to target information;
to indicate organization;
to Indicate the point in a visual
6-22

Focus on Color: Cont.
Use color to make the text stand out-color makes the text clearly
visible;
Use color to target information-color focuses attention so strongly that
it creates “information targets”;
Use color to indicate organization-color creates visual logic;
Use color to indicate the point of a visual design-color in visual aid
draws readers’ attention to specific items.
Copyright © 2014. Wadsworth. All Rights Reserved. 6-23

Focus on Color: Cont.
Summary guideline for using color-follow basic guidelines in your
handing of color:
 be consistent;
 correctly use contrast;
 correctly use feeling and association;
 generally use only one hue with varying tints and shads;
 help color blind readers by using different brightnesses of
the same color.
(See pages 171-177.)

Week 4 - Designing pages

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