Chapters 25 & 26 pt. 2

Abstracts:

Keep them short.

Don’t add any new info; Only highlight the report.

Your audience will be much more varied than that of your report, so use more general vocabulary.

• Identify the issue.
• Offer KEY facts, stats, and findings
• Condensed conclusion and recommendations, if any.

Gloseries:

Use one if you need to define 5 or more terms.

Guidelines:
Over-define when in doubt.
Sort in alphabetical order
*Asterisk* on the first use of a word.


Appendices


Useful for things like:

Equations

Experiments

Maps

Photos

Questionnaires and Tests

Tabulated Responses

Guidelines:

• Separate appendices
• Use sparingly
• Mention early and clearly.
• Keep relevant

Chapter 26

Slideshow Guidelines

• Have a backup plan.
• Prepare Handouts
• Avoid slide overload
• The focus is on what you say
• Stay simple and elegant
• Make use of dividers and summary slides
• Avoid merely reciting the slides
  

Cultivate your audience

• Get to know them
• Be reasonable
• Show enthusiasm and confidence
• Don't Preach

Keep your audience orientated
Have a clear introduction, give concrete examples, use transitions, and finish with a summary.

Visuals
Use only when ready for one, and don't start or end with one.

Use natural movements; control your voice pitch, rate, and volume; and maintain eye contact.

Stick to your plan, have time for Q&A, and leave listeners with something to remember.

Chapter 15

Designing Pages and Documents

Page design: The layout of words and graphics.

A "page" can mean many different things.

• A page in a book
• An endless webpage
• one panel of a brochure
• part of a reference card

Page Design in Workplace Documents

People read work-related documents only because they have to.

• They want to get in, get the information they need, and get out.

Before reading the document, people usually scan it for a sense of what it's about and how its organized.

• "Does this look like something I want to read or like too much work?"
• Users look for charts, diagrams, lists, various type sizes and fonts, different levels of headings, and other navigation aids instead of long, unbroken series of paragraphs.

Design Skills Needed in Today's Workplace

You may be responsible for preparing actual publications as part of your job.

Desktop Publishing

• Combine word processing, typesetting, and graphics into one program.
• Controls the entire production cycle: designing, illustrating, laying out, and printing the final document

Electronic Publishing

• Create documents in digital format for the Web, company intranet, PDF's
• Markup languages (Tags) allow documents to be used in many different platforms.
• SGML for printed texts; HTML for electronic documents.

Using Style Sheets and Company Style Guides

• Ensure consistency across a single or set of documents
• The more complex a document, the more specific the Style Sheet should be.
• Style guides help ensure a consistent look across a company's various documents and publication

Creating a Usable Design

Shape the Page

• Paper quality
  -Depends on artwork, type of printing, and intended aesthetic effect
  
• Page numbers, headers, and footers
  -Count your title page as "i" and number all pages before the main texts in lower case roman numerals.
  -Number the first text page and subsequent pages with arabic numerals.
  
• Grids
  -Give consistency to layout
  
• White space and margins
  -White space draws the eye.
  -Small margins crowd the page. Leave at least 1 to 1.5 inches.
  
• Line length and spacing
  -Long lines tire the eyes.
  -Short lines disrupt reading.
  -Keep line spacing consistent.
  
• Paragraphs and lists
  -Tailor each paragraph to its purpose.
  -Make lists for easy reading.

Styling the Words and Letters

• Typefaces
• Type sizes
• Capitalization

Adding Emphasis and Orientation

• Options for highlighting
• Heads and subheads

Using Typography Effectively

Each typeface has its own personality.

• Business
• Humor
• Technical
  

All typefaces can be categorized as one of two things:

1. Serif
   -Lines extending from each letter.
   -Lines guide eyes from letter to letter making it easier to read.
   
2. Sans Serif
   -No lines extending from letters.
   -Purely vertical, clean looking, and businesslike.
   

Select an Appropriate Typeface:

• Use different sizes and versions of the same font through out the document as needed.
• Use typefaces that are easy to read.
• Use Full Caps Sparingly.

To emphasize important elements:

• Indent to differentiate from the main body
  
• Use ruled horizontal lines to separate sections in a long document
• Use ruled lines, broken lines, or ruled boxes to set off crucial information
• Boldface is good to emphasize a single sentence or brief statement
• Italics can highlight words, phrases, or anything else you would underline
• Small type sizes work well for captions
• Avoid large type sizes and dramatic typefaces
• Color can be appropriate in some documents when use sparingly
• No matter what you do, BE CONSISTENT

Using Headings for Access and Orientation

Headings announce how the document is organized.
-Think of it as separated into chucks and sub-chunks.

Lay out headings by level.

Title
Main Heading
Sub-Heading
Normal Text

• List text
  -sub list text
  

Heading guidelines:

• Use no more than four levels of headings
• Divide Logically
• Insert one additional line of space above each heading
• Never begin a sentence right after the heading with "this", "it" or some other pronoun referring to the heading.
• Never lead a heading floating as the final line of a page.
• Use running heads or feet in long documents.

Decide how to phrase your headings:

• Topic headings
  -Usable Page Design
  
• Statement headings
  -How to Create a Usable Page Design
  
• Question headings
  -How Do I Create a Usable Page Design?
  

Make headings visually consistent and grammatically parallel.


Audience Considerations in Page Design

Create a design to meet particular needs and expectations:

• If reference only;
  -use plenty of headings
• If sequence of steps;
  -use a numbered list
• If evaluating something;
  -give a checklist
• If using a warning;
  -highlight the warning so that it cannot possibly be overlooked.
• If a one-page report;
  -save space by using a 10 point font.
• If facing complex information or difficult steps;
  -widen the margin

Never make the document too intellectually intimidating.

Consider the audience's cultural expectations, both directions and colors.


Designing On-Screen Documents

Web Pages

Each page is generally a stand-alone module.

Material is displayed in screen-sized chunks

Links are essentially headings

Some Design Guidelines:

• Display the main point close to the top of each page.
• Provide ample margins so that text won't blur the screen edges.
• Keep sentences and paragraphs shorter than for hard copy.
• Display links, hot buttons, and help options on each page.
• Provide a "Find" or "Search" option on each page.
• Make your links consistent.
• Don't use underlining for emphasis.
• Use sans serif type for body text.
• Don't use small type.

Other Types of Digital Pages:

• Online Help
• Adobe Acrobat and PDF Files
• CD's and Other Media

Identify early on what possible media your document might be delivered.