Writing for the Workplace: Business Communication for Professionals
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| Table 2.1 Type justification Type justification Functionality This margin is left justified, ragged right type. This margin is left justified, ragged right. This margin is left justified, ragged right. Notice how the left margin forms a straight line, while the right edge is jagged. This is considered the easiest alignment to read and should be used in nearly every writing situation. This is centered type. This is centered type. This is centered Centered type is inappropriate for most reading tasks but is a good choice for headings, such as the headings in this table. This is right justified type with a ragged left margin this is right justified type with a ragged left margin Readers’ eyes would quickly tire if having to readjust to locate the beginning of each line of type. Use right justified type to align short phrases only. This line is considered fully justified. This line is considered fully justified. This line is considered fully justified. This line is considered fully justified. Notice the awkward spaces between the words when using fully justified text. This occurs because the word processor does not hyphenate words so it has to create spaces to fit the type into a rectangle. Those spaces slowdown reading. When full justification is needed for particular documents, you will need to use your own appropriate word hyphenations to reduce the space gaps that otherwise occur. Paragraph Length In college papers, it is not unusual fora paragraph to take up an entire typed page. However, that this is unacceptable in all business documents. To aid our readers, business writers limit paragraph length to no more than eight lines (not eight sentences) This is a rule of thumb that should betaken very seriously. Long, dense paragraphs scare readers away. BASICS OF dOCUmENT dESIGN 23 Spacing Again, in college, papers are usually double spaced and new paragraphs are indented. However, in business documents, single spacing is the norm new paragraphs are signaled by adding an extra space. Because the extra space is clearly a marker of anew paragraph, it would be redundant and unnecessary to also use a tab. Typeface Type fonts are divided into two basic families serif and sans serif. Serif fonts such as Times, Garamond, or Palatino have feet and tails under the letters that form a line to help the eye track the words and sentences, which is why graphic artists choose serif fonts for long documents such as books. Serif fonts have an old fashioned feel. For business documents that will be printed, using a serif font will help your reader move through the content faster. Sans serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, and Verdana have a cleaner, simple line that translates better to the pixel-based display on screens. Look at the following example to examine the difference between font families: This is point Garamond, a serif font. This is point Arial, a sans serif font. Notice the difference in the two point fonts. Both are point, but Arial appears much larger than Garamond. When you choose your font, you will want to take into consideration how large or small it appears on the page. White Space Space on a page without any visual or type is called white space. White space breaks up text and frames the words on the page. It also helps balance a page. It is helpful to view your page in the preview function of the word processing tool you use to see how the white space is arranged on the page. This is an excellent way to adjust pages that are off balance or too densely packed with words. |