Chapter 5 Writing with Style

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Chapter 5Writing with Style

• Part 2
• Effective page design
• (pp. 178-183)

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Readability

• Ease of understanding a passage
• Based on
• Style of writing
• Physical appearance

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Readability formulas

• Complexity of passage is predicted by
• Sentence length
• Number of syllables per word
• Word frequency

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Readability formulas

• Physical appearance
• attractively formatted
• Legible type
• Plenty of white space

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Readability elements

• Keep it simple
• white space
• line length
• type size
• Justification format

• Paragraph format
• Emphasizing words ideas
• lists
• graphics

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1. Keep it simple

• Clean consistent design
• Serifs vs. Sans Serif
• Examples
• Times New Roman (32)
• Arial Black (32)

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White (blank) space

• Top bottom
• Usually 1
• Side margins
• Usually 1
• Space between text/paragraphs
• After headings

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2. Line length

• Too short weaken coherence
• Too long reader loses track
• Generally 25-75 characters

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Type size

• Times New Roman
• font
• 12cpi
• Font size
• Headings can be larger

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Justification (p. 181)

• Left justified
• Right side of document
• Full justified
• A clean formal appearance
• Ragged
• Informal, casual appearance

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Format Paragraphs

• Single vs. double spacing
• Indent vs. right justified
• Spacing between paragraphs
• First letter in paragraph
• First
• Attractive inviting

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emphasis

• Underlining
• Bold
• Italics
• Remember
• readability attractiveness

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Formatting Lists (p. 182)

• Numbered
• Bulleted
• Type face
• Width
• Size

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Graphics

• Use in moderation
• Avoid distractions
• Avoid meaningless graphics
• Understanding information in tables graphs

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Effective Writing

• Beyond correctness
• Style
• See Checklist p. 183