In Michael J. Klein & Kristi L. Shackelford’s Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom, the author talks about the different elements that create a design in paper/document. This article opened my eyes to see that designs can be found in a paper as I entered college and began learning the “styles” of APA and MLA. Before reading this article, I never realized the intentionality of calling these formats – styles. On the contrary, I saw them as strict rules that were hard to follow. This article opened my eyes to see that every document has some element of design involved.
Elements such as texts, alignments, margins, repetition, etc. These are things that are crucial to the outline of a document as I learn the structure of essays. I am now able to see the beauty in the strict outline and not as a general rule that I must follow. The elements already established make it easier for a community to communicate and identify when a document is being written according to their specialty. An example of this is seen in the preference of style between APA and MLA in different academic disciplines. This also allows the reader to identify the category of the document. Understanding these elements has given me new insights on doing future assignments. Learning the different elements is definitely an asset in helping the way I write as well as my attitude towards writing. Ensuring progress in the way that I articulate. This also encourages future writers, and future college students to embark on the journey of discovering different elements in writing.
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