Chapter 7 Instructor Resources

Suggested Responses to Additional Exercises and Cases for Chapter 7: Designing Print and Online Documents

Suggested Response to “Analyzing the Design of a Catalog”

Although responses will vary, a few brief comments follow. The reverse type (white text on a black background) effectively emphasizes the first-level headings. The frequent use of bulleted and numbered lists helps reduce the monotony of the single-column design. The lists also emphasize important information. However, the numbered lists are formatted inconsistently and are often spread across several sections. Readers could more easily find information they seek if the catalog had page numbers and informative headers and footers. In addition, the catalog would be more effective if it had a multicolumn design.

Suggested Response to “Creating Thumbnails for an Improved Design”

This project introduces students to the technique of using thumbnail sketches to experiment with design elements. The page from the report by the Bonneville Power Administration is underdesigned most obviously in that the second-level heads (“Flow” and “Spill”) do not stand out. A conservative thumbnail sketch would increase their size and perhaps put them on a separate line so that they do not run in with the text. A more ambitious thumbnail would put them on separate lines and use a hanging indent for the rest of the body text. The title block, too, could be outdented (extended beyond the left margin of the body text). Other designs might use a multicolumn format for the excerpt.

Suggested Response to “Analyzing the Design of an Online Magazine”

Responses will vary depending on which issue and pages students choose to analyze. Successful responses might comment on the use of leading to separate sections of articles, color to set off headings, italics to set off biographical blurbs, and headers and footers to set off the body content. Successful responses might also discuss how the column grid is used to present a lot of information economically.

Suggested Response to “Comparing Two Designs”

Although responses will vary, your students will likely notice some differences in design. For example, textbooks for upper-level courses may include longer blocks of text and fewer tables, charts, and accessing aids than are found in Practical Strategies for Technical Communication. In some cases, audience considerations or the budget and time constraints of the publisher might have dictated a very simple design.

Suggested Response to “Buying from a Spanish-Friendly Computer Manufacturer”

Because websites are periodically revised, responses will vary. Students will want to see whether the site of the computer manufacturer contains a prominent link to a Spanish-language version of the information. If students cannot find such a link, the search function may yield one. In addition, effective sites for multicultural readers use short sentences and paragraphs, as well as common words, and they avoid idioms.

Suggested Response to “Determining Site-Registration Hurdles”

Responses will vary. The influence of search engines on the success of a company is growing. Getting registered on a popular search engine is a make-or-break proposition for some companies. Unfortunately, because many companies providing search engines do so for profit, they regard information on how to get registered at their sites as proprietary. The information they do release is often vague and incomplete.

Suggested Response to “Identifying Poor Sites”

Although responses will vary, most students will report that they can at least learn what not to do by looking at examples of bad design. Students with some web design experience can recognize design mistakes they are currently making. Even students with no design experience can relate as web users to the examples.

Suggested Response to “Is Cool Good?”

Responses will vary. Cool, like humor and beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. What is cool to one person is annoying to another. A cool site is not necessarily a well-designed site. A pulsing heart on a medical website may be eye-catching, for example, but may not be an effective element to help nurses learn heart sounds.

Suggested Response to “Creating a Website”

This case requires that students synthesize all the information in this chapter, from analyzing audience and purpose to testing and revising the site they have created. The additional activities at the end—keeping a log and presenting an oral report on the process—encourage students to be self-reflective as they go through the different steps in creating and testing the site.

Suggested Response to “Designing a Report Template”

1. Sample memo with sample page design:

TO: Charlotte McQuarrie

FROM: [your name]

DATE: April 20, 2016

SUBJECT: Page Design for Recommendation Report

This memo describes my page design for the recommendation report on safeguarding American plant resources. First, I describe and justify my design. Next, I ask for your feedback on my page design. Attached are two representative pages.

Page Design and Justification

When working on the page design for the safeguarding report, I tried to create a well-designed document but keep the design simple so that the committee members could easily use the template. I also kept in mind printing and distribution costs. Below I describe and justify the design elements used in the report template:

One color (black). Using only black ink will minimize initial printing costs and make it easy for readers to print the report with their desktop printers.
Standard 8.5 × 11-inch paper. Using standard-size paper will also minimize initial printing costs and make it easy for readers to print the report with their desktop printers.
White space. The design uses white space effectively to separate text from graphics and to set off headings.
Headers and footers. Different designs are used for odd and even pages to accommodate double-sided printing. Page numbers, report title, and organization name are included.
Page numbers. Along with the table of contents and index, page numbers will help readers quickly find the information they seek.
Queuing. The first-level head is the biggest, and the second-level heads are bigger than the third-level heads. Together these headings create visual distinctions to indicate levels of importance.
Two-column layout. The two-column layout will enable writers to present a lot of information clearly and use narrow or wide graphics without wasting space.
Standard typefaces. Arial and Times New Roman are typically included in most software programs and can be reproduced by most printers.
Single-line spacing. The single-line spacing is legible in this page design and enables writers to include a lot of content on each page. Fewer pages means lower printing and distribution costs.
Ragged-right justification. Ragged right prevents the problem of irregular spacing.
New styles. To help writers easily format text, the safeguard template comes with ten new styles in Word covering the following elements: chapter number, heading 1 (H1), heading 2 (H2), heading 3 (H3), normal, bullet list, numbered list, header, footer, and caption.

Action Item

Please review my page design and let me know what changes you would like. Because we committed to emailing the committees the final template no later than April 29, I would like to have your comments and suggestions for revision no later than Tuesday, April 27.

2. Sample report template: