Tea time musings #1: What is a good document?

Fellow readers,

Time for our first cup of tea!

Today, I’ll be evaluating my Assignment 1 presentation slides, drawing comparisons between my group presentation and individual presentation.

Layout

Generally, the group presentation slide is driven by verbal texts, incorporating visual texts only when necessary, as portrayed in Figure 1. According to Walsh (2006), images offer unique aspects that words alone cannot satisfy at “…affective, aesthetic and imaginative levels”. Thus, by including images, the audience will feel emotions and form interpretations of their own which in turn personalizes the message. Therefore, visuals were added to the individual presentation to illustrate the main points, as displayed through Figure 2. Shriver (1997) classifies this relationship between words and images as supplementary in which one mode is more dominant, channeling the main content, while the other mode merely strengthens the dominant mode.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Though images can further the understanding of the dominant mode, it can also murder the true meaning of the dominant mode itself. Saltz (cited in Saville 2008) cautions that, “Sometimes words don’t apply to the image, or the other way round. They shoot each other in the foot instead of enhancing each other.” Hence, reference must be made to relate one mode to the other. Concerning the group presentation slide shown in Figure 3, no reference was made to relate the image to the text. To combat this, the individual presentation slide was altered, referencing the image as an example to the related points as depicted in Figure 4.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Additionally, typographic alignment enhances aesthetic elements. The texts in the group presentation slide were justified, leaving wide spaces between words known as “loose lines” or “rivers” as indicated with red arrows in Figure 5. Singer (2002) abhors this, suggesting that texts should be ragged to the side instead to make reading easier. Consequently, the texts in the individual presentation slide were ragged to the left margin as illustrated in Figure 6.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Technical writing

Rothman (2005) upholds that technical writing serves a specific purpose, any attempt to alter this style of writing risks losing vital information. With regards to the group presentation, technical terms were “watered-down” into lay terms, as highlighted in Figure 7, forgoing the true essence of the information. Thus, the individual presentation incorporated technical terms to retain its true meaning as bolded in Figure 8.

Figure 7

Figure 8

Above all, in a good document design, form has its function, as postulated by Wheildon (2005), “design is not, or should not be, mere decoration and abstraction, but part of the business of communication.”

References

Rothman, S 2005, What makes good scientific and technical writing?, Associated Content, viewed 24 April 2009, <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/error>.

Saville, L 2008, 100 habits of successful publication designers: insider secrets for working smart and staying creative, Rockport Publishers, Beverly, Massachusetts.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

Singer, D 2002, Ten steps to good document design, University of Alabama, viewed 24 April 2009, <http://www.uah.edu/colleges/liberal/english/shared/doc_des_singer.htm>.

Walsh, M 2006, “‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, p.24-37.

Wheildon, C 2005, Type and layout: are you communicating or just making pretty shapes, 5th edn, The Worsley Press, Victoria.

An Invitation

Fellow readers,

You’re invited!

Here at Tender Moments with IPD, you can savour a warm cup of chamomile tea, bite off the thickest block of chocolate or simply allow the purest breeze of fondness to catch you off guard. Well of course, there’s more! Straighten your backs as you greet the givers of imagination, grace through the courts of verbal discourse, critic the gallery of visual imagery while you enjoy the sights and sound of technological innovation.

In simpler terms, Tender Moments with IPD serves as a platform to address pivotal issues regarding the art of document design; to investigate the workability of publication theories in practice and to question the latest discoveries in communication studies. Yes, all these while you sip through that cup of chamomile tea!

So, what are you waiting for? Need a reason? Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) highlight the lack of education in visual and multimodal texts among schools, simultaneously advocating its importance at this age of globalization. Furthermore, Bearne (cited in Walsh 2006) asserts that a paradigm shift, from monomodal to multimodal text, is simply inevitable.

As such, this is a trumpet call to all document designers, professionals and novices alike, students in pursuit of communication studies or just about anyone who’s curious about the world of publication and document design.

No, you don’t need to wave like the Queen to be a part of this! It’s as simple as just dropping by and picking up your cup of tea.

So until then, I’m looking forward to our first cup of tea…


Source: Getty Images n.d.

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, Routledge, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, “‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, p.24-37.