Design creates meaning. Once you have created and organized your content, take time to design your document to reinforce a message and make it easier for your audience to understand.
We’d all like to think that readers pore over our messages; the truth is that you’ll be lucky to receive a quick skim. Use the following strategies to ensure that skimmers and scanners receive the main ideas of your messages and know exactly where to go for more detail.
Design for Skimmers, Scanners, and Readers
Skimmers look at a document without an agenda.
Designing for Skimmers: Emphasize the points you most want to communicate so that skimmers can’t help noticing them.
Scanners approach a document with an interest in specific information.
Designing for Scanners: Create a design that makes it easy for scanners to find what they need from your document.
Readers start at the beginning and read sentence by sentence.
Designing for Readers: Design a document that rewards their attention with clear, logical formatting.
–Adapted from Document Design: A Guide for Technical Communicators.
Frontload Key Information
Put main ideas first (except when using the indirect approach for conveying negative news or saying no).
Getting the main point of a message, or the bottom line, into the beginning of a message often requires revision.
The drafting process helps you figure out what your main point is, which means that in the first draft it ends up near the end of a message.
Avoid Large Blocks of Text
Use short sentences and paragraphs (in business writing some paragraphs may be one to two sentences long). No one wants to read messages that consist of a single large block of text.
Simple Messages
Business writing allows you to break up simple messages into multiple paragraphs for increased readability. If you can express an idea in one sentence, then a one-sentence paragraph is fine.
Start a new paragraph every time you have a new idea, a new subordinate idea, a new supporting detail, another example, or a new clarification.
The goal is whitespace; simply dividing one long paragraph into multiple short paragraphs adds whitespace, which makes messages easier to read.
Complex Messages
Students of academic writing often learn to structure long, complex paragraphs with the MEAL plan. In workplace writing, you can follow the same structure, but divide a long paragraph with a heading and short paragraphs.
Evidence = short paragraph(s)
Analysis = short paragraph(s)
Link to main purpose in writing, if necessary = short paragraph
Make Lists Parallel
Parallel lists aid reader comprehension. Parallelism means that each item in a list follows the same grammatical pattern.
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Parallelism in Sentences
Instead of this: This book was exciting, well written, and held my interest.
Write this: This book was exciting, well written, and interesting.
Instead of this: She gave her team a negative performance rating because they made too many coding errors, the project expenses exceeded their budget, and they often missed deadlines.
Write this: Write this: She gave her team a negative performance rating because they made too many coding errors, exceeded their budget, and missed too many deadlines.
Parallelism in Lists
The decline in company profit is due to four factors:
- decreased holiday sales
- increased transportation and fuel costs
- increased employee wages
- reduced inventory turnover
Biologists divide vertebrates into five classes:
- Amphibians
- Birds
- Fish
- Mammals
- Reptiles
You’ll need to bring four items to survive this weekend’s trip to Door County:
- A warm sleeping bag
- A can of bug spray
- A comfortable pair of hiking boots
- A USCG life jacket
Parallelism in Headings
Headings are a list of your main ideas or topics, which means that, like other lists, they should be parallel. In this example, each heading consists of a modifier and a noun.
Example Level One Headings In a Single Document
Project Overview
Planned Project Scope
Projected Time Frame
Project Budget
Evaluation Plan
Add Useful and Effective Headings & Subheadings
Headings and subheadings should communicate main ideas, alert readers to topic changes, and make the organization of longer documents clear. In business writing, headings and subheadings can take the place of transitions and topic sentences.
Tips for Writing Useful and Effective Headings
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Make Headings Parallel
Headings are a list of your main ideas or topics, which means that, like other lists, they should be parallel. In this example, each heading consists of a modifier and a noun.
Example Level One Headings In a Single Document
Project Overview
Planned Project Scope
Projected Time Frame
Project Budget
Evaluation Plan
Provide the Right Amount of Detail
Headings should give readers an overview of your ideas. Make sure they are specific and useful without being complete sentences.
Examples
Vague: Sources
Specific and detailed: Industry Sources in the Food Truck Sector
Vague: Reports
Specific and detailed: Fourth-Quarter Expense Reports
Avoid Floating Headings
Headings should be closer to the text they label than to other text. Microsoft Word defaults to even spacing above and below headings, or floating headings, which creates visual confusion. Notice how this example uses more whitespace above the heading than below, to make it clear what text the heading labels.
Examples
Avoid Too Much White Space: Strategies for Developing Friendly Nonverbal Cues
Start of paragraph about how clowns can modulate posture and facial expressions to present themselves positively…
Instead: Example Header Is Tightly Spaced
…end of previous section about how clowns face the challenge of communicating with clown-phobic audiences.
Use Lists Effectively
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Provide Context
Introduce lists so that readers understand the information. Provide context for lists of actions or explain how your list is organized or categorized.
Examples
The following items must be completed by September 3 or the new site launch will have to be delayed:
- add new logo
- set up analytics
- test on multiple browsers
Discontinued Pharmaceuticals
- Bacitracin for Injection
- Cortisone Tablets
- Electrolyte Concentrate
- Posaconazole Oral Suspension
Here are our highest value clients, ordered by distance from our home office, nearest to furthest:
Kohl’s, Menomenee Falls, WI
Walgreens, Deerfield, IL
Target, Minneapolis, MN
Casey’s General Store, Ankeny, IA
Big Lots, Columbus, OH
Cabela’s, Springfield, MO
Keep Lists Parallel
Parallel lists aid reader comprehension. Parallelism means that each item in the list follows the same grammatical pattern.
Examples
The decline in company profit is due to four factors:
- decreased holiday sales
- increased transportation and fuel costs
- increased employee wages
- reduced inventory turnover
Biologists divide vertebrates into five classes:
- Amphibians
- Birds
- Fish
- Mammals
- Reptiles
You’ll need to bring four items to survive this weekend’s trip to Door County:
- A warm sleeping bag
- A can of bug spray
- A comfortable pair of hiking boots
- A USCG life jacket
Avoid "Paragraph Lists"
Adding bullet points to paragraphs doesn’t create a skimmable document. If you aren’t listing actions or items, use short paragraphs and headings instead.
Break Up Long Lists
Create groups of subcategories; put six or fewer items into each subcategory.
Example
Common Types of Textile Fibers
Synthetic
- acrylic
- modacrylic
- nylon
- polyester
Natural
- cotton
- silk
- wool
Choose the Right Visual Marker for List Items
Numbers: sequence or process
Bullets: order of importance or no particular order
Letters: options or choices
Add an In-line Label for Complex Lists
When bulleted or numbered items become lengthy, start with a bolded or italicized key word or phrase.
Examples
You’ll enjoy a variety of dessert options from our caterers:
Cakes: chocolate lava cake, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and pastel de tres leches
Ice creams: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and dulce de leche
Pastries: eclairs, sweet potato pie, treacle tart, and tarte des alpes
Truffles: cappuccino, black forest, caramel, and champagne white chocolate
Use these editing strategies to polish your work:
- Retype your draft. Print your reports and then open a new document. Retype your report from scratch. When we edit within an existing document, we often hesitate to make big, necessary changes. Retyping frees us up to do a more thorough revising and editing process.
- Read your draft out loud. Reading out loud helps you identify a disconnect between what you want to say and what is actually on the page. Alternatively, have someone else read your draft out loud to you, to give you a different perspective.
- Change how the document looks. When you don’t have time to step away from a long document and can’t get someone else to help you, changing the font size, type, and color can trick your brain into seeing your sentences and paragraphs with a fresh perspective. Go for a dramatic change, like 16-point comic sans in purple. Separating each sentence by hitting return after each one can also help you edit effectively.
- Take time away from the draft. It becomes difficult to see what’s on the page when you’re too close to it. Putting your draft away for a few days or a week will help you experience it as a reader and identify places where you can be clearer or more concise.
Don't Overdo It
If an entire message is a list, then nothing stands out and readers get lost.
Illustrate Levels of Importance with Graphic Emphasis
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Vary Font Sizes & Styles
Consider the following choices and think about what they might communicate to readers:
S p a c i n g
Size
Multiple Fonts
Small Caps
Color
Italics
Bold
Bold Italics
Signal Levels of Importance with Visual Weight
Use different visual weights to indicate different levels of importance; in general, bigger, heavier, thicker = more important. Note, as in the example below, that a formatted document ends up being longer than an unformatted document, but is more likely to be understood because it’s more skimmable.
Examples
Level One Heading
Level Two Heading
Level Three Heading
Level One Heading
Level Two Heading
Level Three Heading
Meet Readers' Expectations for Placement
Readers generally expect to find important information on the left side or center of a page. They also expect items that relate to one another to be closer to each other than items that don’t relate.
Example of How Graphic Emphasis Impacts Readability
Unformatted Text
Rutrum habitasse vehicula diam tempus elementum ex libero. In congue nulla magna faucibus et efficitur luctus curabitur. Aaccumsan nisi et leo adipiscing netus pellentesque bibendum. Pretium urna taciti curabitur sodales fringilla sagittis. Dictum fermentum tellus est primis dolor habitant varius nisl suscipit.
Efficitur sed feugiat sagittis porttitor hac. Lacus orci velit integer, nunc dictum pulvinar ridiculus neque. Nullam diam libero interdum vivamus vivamus sociosqu ultrices. Pretium dictumst massa himenaeos bibendum nulla ullamcorper quam purus litora. Eleifend risus felis montes arcu penatibus consectetur. Est justo amet varius purus per.
Litora commodo torquent ut. Nascetur ut dictumst viverra interdum dolor sapien finibus. Mauris vulputate eu porta vivamus maximus nostra pulvinar. Dis efficitur magna suspendisse nostra eget ridiculus. Mattis sem ligula ligula lectus nisi donec hac.
Neque parturient nunc fermentum duis vel orci. Phasellus ad consequat nulla felis vulputate potenti eu adipiscing. Risus pharetra conubia augue blandit et. Sodales maecenas nibh ac cursus convallis laoreet. Maximus aptent donec vulputate tortor in at himenaeos elementum? Eros feugiat quam; eros lectus sed ultrices. Lacinia dolor congue tristique integer duis tempusSollicitudin bibendum blandit faucibus mauris; ultricies tempor euismod? Convallis nulla risus quis est tortor tempor nunc hendrerit sed. Platea ultricies lorem torquent tempor consequat turpis nibh senectus. Tempus laoreet inceptos sit in vivamus. Din bibendum blandit faucibus mauris; ultricies tempor euismod? Convallis nulla risus quis est tortor tempor nunc hendrerit sed. Cras est commodo sollicitudin elit integer duis. Arcu facilisi montes ultrices, risus vehicula netus. Placerat eu mauris a finibus donec blandit. Orci quis mollis etiam, orci habitant senectus nisl pulvinar nullam. Platea ultricies lorem torquent tempor consequat turpis nibh senectus. Tempus laoreet inceptos sit in vivamus.
Quam risus litora lobortis. Mus sagittis tempus risus cras habitasse faucibus. Ultrices leo mauris aenean hendrerit; consectetur lacinia nibh. Litora fames sollicitudin quis ad amet suspendisse senectus integer aliquet! Elit morbi magna mattis scelerisque fames convallis natoque condimentum. Tincidunt fermentum mollis tincidunt, lectus gravida efficitur aenean. Laoreet curabitur sed maximus quam sit dapibus vel mus.
Ex risus diam ipsum maximus velit molestie nascetur. Est cursus tristique per feugiat pretium fermentum. Bibendum egestas duis nam habitasse quisque nullam quis magnis felis. Ridiculus fames aptent morbi curae interdum.
Malesuada ut class facilisi mauris, convallis fermentum. Viverra erat inceptos eros, leo nascetur lectus. Ultrices hendrerit vehicula ornare nullam velit. Ante in fermentum semper tempor quam ipsum turpis. Suscipit scelerisque hac, per quam lectus phasellus morbi blandit phasellus.
Amet venenatis vulputate curae pretium porttitor vivamus at pretium ultricies. Magna iaculis viverra cubilia lacus nam hac hendrerit fermentum.
Text Formatted to Show Document Hierarchy
Title In Large Font and Title Case
Subtitle
Rutrum habitasse vehicula diam tempus elementum ex libero. In congue nulla magna faucibus et efficitur luctus curabitur. Aaccumsan nisi et leo adipiscing netus pellentesque bibendum. Pretium urna taciti curabitur sodales fringilla sagittis. Dictum fermentum tellus est primis dolor habitant varius nisl suscipit.
Level 1 Header Bold and Larger Than Body Text
Efficitur sed feugiat sagittis porttitor hac. Lacus orci velit integer, nunc dictum pulvinar ridiculus neque. Nullam diam libero interdum vivamus vivamus sociosqu ultrices. Est justo amet varius purus per.
Level 2 Header in Bold and Italics
Litora commodo torquent ut. Nascetur ut dictumst viverra interdum dolor sapien finibus. Mauris vulputate eu porta vivamus maximus nostra pulvinar. Dis efficitur magna suspendisse nostra eget ridiculus. Mattis sem ligula ligula lectus nisi donec hac.
Neque parturient nunc fermentum duis vel orci. Phasellus ad consequat nulla felis vulputate potenti eu adipiscing. Himenaeos elementum? Eros feugiat quam; eros lectus sed ultrices. Lacinia dolor congue tristique integer duis tempus.
Level 2 Header in Bold and Italics
Dui scelerisque elementum fames sociosqu sagittis luctus. Nisl arcu aliquet convallis magna mollis dignissim. Bibendum consequat leo dictumst non dolor porta. Habitant class convallis blandit dictum efficitur nulla fusce sit ligula. Egestas bibendum vitae porttitor felis magna pretium. Euismod per lacinia; morbi magna at feugiat. Donec aptent at, rutrum eros mollis urna.
Sollicitudin bibendum blandit faucibus mauris; ultricies tempor euismod? Convallis nulla risus quis est tortor tempor nunc hendrerit sed. Platea ultricies lorem torquent tempor consequat turpis nibh senectus. Tempus laoreet inceptos sit in vivamus.
Adipiscing curabitur tempus phasellus conubia mus ante sem bibendum. Consectetur molestie ligula mus nec cubilia vestibulum dui. Tempus cursus maecenas taciti laoreet nascetur? Litora ullamcorper praesent imperdiet donec; porttitor nulla. Ridiculus malesuada posuere aptent turpis pharetra penatibus. Aliquet ullamcorper semper vel tristique dui quam purus nibh.
Level 1 Header Bold and Larger Than Body Text
Quam risus litora lobortis. Mus sagittis tempus risus cras habitasse faucibus. Elit morbi magna mattis scelerisque fames convallis natoque condimentum. Tincidunt fermentum mollis tincidunt, lectus gravida efficitur aenean. Laoreet curabitur sed maximus quam sit dapibus vel mus.
Level 2 Header in Bold and Italics
Ex risus diam ipsum maximus velit molestie nascetur. Est cursus tristique per feugiat pretium fermentum. Bibendum egestas duis nam habitasse quisque nullam quis magnis felis. Ridiculus fames aptent morbi curae interdum.
Malesuada ut class facilisi mauris, convallis fermentum. Viverra erat inceptos eros, leo nascetur lectus. Ultrices hendrerit vehicula ornare nullam velit. Ante in fermentum semper tempor quam ipsum turpis. Suscipit scelerisque hac, per quam lectus phasellus morbi blandit phasellus.
Amet venenatis vulputate curae pretium porttitor vivamus at pretium ultricies. Magna iaculis viverra cubilia lacus nam hac hendrerit fermentum.
Use Block Format
Block format is the standard way to format text in business writing:
- Align text with the left margin (left justify)
- Use single space
- Add a line space between paragraphs
- Do not indent paragraphs
Example Paragraphs
Standard Block Format
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Turpis egestas integer eget aliquet nibh praesent tristique magna. Sodales ut eu sem integer vitae. Vel elit scelerisque mauris pellentesque pulvinar pellentesque habitant.
Quis varius quam quisque id. Est ultricies integer quis auctor elit sed vulputate mi. Sagittis orci a scelerisque purus semper eget. Sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis rhoncus urna. Aliquam nulla facilisi cras fermentum odio eu. Eu nisl nunc mi ipsum faucibus vitae. Morbi non arcu risus quis varius quam quisque
Eget sit amet tellus cras adipiscing enim eu. Pretium nibh ipsum consequat nisl. Malesuada pellentesque elit eget gravida cum sociis natoque penatibus et. Dui ut ornare lectus sit amet. Ut enim blandit volutpat maecenas.
Vitae tempus quam pellentesque. Varius morbi enim nunc faucibus a pellentesque sit. Proin sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis rhoncus urna neque viverra justo. Turpis massa tincidunt dui ut ornare lectus sit. Tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo duis. Pretium lectus quam id leo in vitae turpis.
Quis vel eros donec ac odio tempor orci dapibus. Hendrerit dolor magna eget est lorem ipsum dolor sit. Rhoncus dolor purus non enim. Sed risus ultricies tristique nulla aliquet. Blandit massa enim nec dui nunc mattis enim ut. Eros donec ac odio tempor orci dapibus ultrices in iaculis. Pretium vulputate sapien nec sagittis aliquam malesuada bibendum.
Block Format with Additional Formatting
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Turpis egestas integer eget aliquet nibh praesent tristique magna. Sodales ut eu sem integer vitae. Vel elit scelerisque mauris pellentesque pulvinar pellentesque habitant.
Ut Consequat Semper Viverra Nam
Quis varius quam quisque id. Est ultricies integer quis auctor elit sed vulputate mi. Sagittis orci a scelerisque purus semper eget. Sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis rhoncus urna. Aliquam nulla facilisi cras fermentum odio eu. Eu nisl nunc mi ipsum faucibus vitae. Morbi non arcu risus quis varius quam quisque:
- Vitae justo eget
- Magna fermentum iaculis eu
- Id neque aliquam
- Vestibulum morbi blandit
- Cursus risus at ultrices
Eget sit amet tellus cras adipiscing enim eu. Pretium nibh ipsum consequat nisl. Malesuada pellentesque elit eget gravida cum sociis natoque penatibus et. Dui ut ornare lectus sit amet. Ut enim blandit volutpat maecenas.
A Cras Semper Auctor Neque
Vitae tempus quam pellentesque. Varius morbi enim nunc faucibus a pellentesque sit. Proin sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis rhoncus urna neque viverra justo. Turpis massa tincidunt dui ut ornare lectus sit. Tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo duis. Pretium lectus quam id leo in vitae turpis.