Design is a concept often used to describe or understand graphic’s alignment and positioning; however, it is equally important to acknowledge and master design in texts. How a document is designed severely impacts the audience’s engagement with the text and is something writers and editors need to take into account while revising a text. Michael J. Klein and Kristi L. Shackelford’s Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom dives into the many design elements one should consider while writing a document, always keeping in mind how those creative and noncreative – scholarly consistency styles like APA, MLA or Chicago – influence the intended audience.
Ordinary or conventional features and details such as bold lettering, spacing, margins, paragraph separation, alignment, repetition, and contrasts are frequently underrated. Nonetheless, the power of these details can ensure good readability and smooth assimilation of the information shared in the text ensuring the achievement of the author’s goal for their written piece.
It is for this reason that companies hire multiple graphic designers, having at least one focus on document design. In these instances, graphic designers would take into consideration the combination of different fonts, sizes, and colors to grab the reader’s attention. Magazines, newspapers, and broadcast media’s websites are the perfect example of document design in digital media.
Personally, I am still learning how to make my documents more appealing to the reader. Though I use regular and conventional features, I do believe that incorporating a mix of matching fonts to differentiate headlines from subtitles and using more graphic elements could improve the reach and readability of my digital writing. Now, I am looking forward to my Writing for Digital Spaces class next semester to acquire skills that will help me refine my writing.
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