What is a good document?

A document relies heavily on the document design, which is the 'physical appearance of a document' (Reep 2006, p. 134) to determine whether it is a good document or not. Schriver (1997) adds that document design is 'the field concerned with creating texts that combine words and pictures in ways that help people to achieve their specific goals for using texts’. A good document provides a design which helps readers read efficiently.

In order to create a good document, one must consider Reep's four design principles - sequence, balance, consistency, and proportion.

My group presentation slide design

For my upcoming presentation with regards to my previous group presentation, I would make the heading's font size bigger than the text. In order to help the readers understand the document better, the heading should be more salient than the text (Kress & van Leuween 2006). The sequence of this slide should be from top to bottom, so it is imperative that the heading be placed at the top with larger fonts.

Once the sequence is established with a larger heading and smaller text, consistency of the document should be regarded next as it is a crucial element of document design. To make a consistent document, one must consider a few key features - stylistic, spatial and mechanical consistency (Putnis & Petelin 1996). My presentation slides will have a consistent style and page layout as well as a standardised set of punctuation and capitalisation. All the text in my presentation will be done using the same font to improve consistent and readability.

I found that the white background for my group presentation was fairly dull, so I will change the background colour of my individual presentation to light blue. Blue is a 'cool' colour which Reynolds (2005) says is 'best for backgrounds'. I realise that colours play a crucial role in grabbing the audiences' attention as well as enhancing the efficiency of the reader in understanding the text, so colour is a pertinent element of a good document.

Several features dictate how good a document really is, and I hope with the changes that I will make from my first group presentation, my individual presentation will prove to be a good document with a good design.

References:

Kress, G & van Leuween, T 2006, Reading images, Routledge, New York.

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Writing to communicate, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Reep, D 2006, Technical writing, Pearson Education Inc., New York.

Reynolds, G 2005, Top ten slide tips, viewed 4 April 2009, www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html.

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