Writing for the Workplace

CHAPTER 2

Basics of Document Design

One of the most important elements of workplace writing is a document’s appearance. Writing in professional contexts requires as much attention to the way a document appears on the page or the screen as its content. The reason is that as writers, we must make the task of reading easy for our audience. If you have ever waded through dense pages of text with long paragraphs or tried to follow a single line of type that goes across an 18-inch computer screen, you know that reading can become tedious if good design is not factored into what your eyes must look at.

In this chapter, we’ll cover the basics of document design for print and screen. We will discuss the conventions of document design as they pertain to ...