Writing for the Workplace: Business Communication for Professionals
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- Report Document Design
| Integrating Visuals into Text Use the following rules when integrating visuals into a report. Mention the visual in the narrative. Direct your reader’s attention to the visual by referencing it. Write See Figure 1” or As Figure 1 illustrates … ”. Never let a visual standalone without some discussion of its contents. Place the visual near where it is discussed. Do not confuse readers by making them search for the image. Label visuals clearly. The title of the visual should accurately and concisely describe its main message. Use a caption with a title to identify the image’s purpose. Keep images on one page. Never breakup a table or other image onto two pages. Refer to tables as tables and all other images as figures. 7. Number visuals sequentially. Include a source line when taking information from an outside source. Place it in the lower left. Place lengthier visuals in an appendix. Report Document Design As with all workplace documents, reports must be easy to read, so document design is extremely important. For shorter reports—e-mails, letters, memos—the standard document design we have discussed earlier applies. Here we’ll discuss document design for longer reports. Page Design The way your report page appears will encourage or discourage reading. These pointers can help make along report more visually appealing. REPORTS 81 1. Consider using an attractive header and footer as away to create visual interest in longer reports. A logo or infographic image that is unobtrusive can liven up a page. Even a simple colored line across the top and bottom of a page will make a report with many pages appear less tedious. Include page numbers in either the header or footer. Use right and left margins of 1 to 1.25 in, and use 1 in. for the top and bottom. You may also opt to use two columns fora standard report. Doing so can make dense text easier to track. Choose font style for readability. Many manuscript reports use serif fonts, but increasingly, sans serif fonts are also being used. If you douse a sans serif font fora report, adjust your spacing between lines. When a report will be read on a screen, use generous spacing between lines with both serif and sans serif fonts. (Locate the Pew Research Center’s report Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next on the Internet for an excellent model of document design using a serif font to be read on the screen. Differentiate between body copy and headings with boldface and font size. If you use a sans serif font for body copy, choose a serif font for headings. Never use more than two fonts in along report. Add color for visual interest. Stick to a color scheme using no more than three complementary colors. Download 3.09 Mb. Share with your friends:
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