5. Enhancing Readability Through Document Design

When you compose a message, you want your audience to find the information it needs quickly and to understand what it finds. Your message should be easy to read and to comprehend. Well-designed documents enhance readability and comprehension. Understanding and employing the various design techniques that can be used to improve readability will make your messages more effective.

__________ define the shape of text characters.

A) HEADINGS

B) TYPEFACES

C) FONTS

Read the passage, and then answer the question.

Participants will continue to engage in self-paced decision-making exercises to encourage inquiry, present multiple outcomes, and provide immediate feedback. Each participant will connect and collaborate through a Facebook group where he or she can post comments, engage in discussion, and consult student experts for guidance with subject and game mastery. Collaboration across multiple groups provides both participatory and competitive opportunities. To conclude, each participant will engage in a test of his or her decision-making skills. High-scoring students will have the opportunity to participate in the summer leadership camp to work with trained faculty.

What document design strategy would improve the readability and comprehension of this passage?

A) Choosing an appropriate typeface

B) Employing white space

C) Using parallel construction

Consider the following passage, and then answer the question.

The following list includes the stakeholdersranked by level of impactmost affected by our closure. Employees will feel the greatest impact from our closure, followed by our customers, and then the community.

	The Employees
	The employees who will lose their jobs are the stakeholders most affected by the shutdown of our company. The most critical issue faced by employees is the loss of income and the task of finding a new job in an economy where jobs are extremely scarce. We should provide laid-off employees with a severance package to help them while they seek and obtain a new job.

Customers will be affected

Customers are also stakeholders, and together they form a group we must take into consideration. Many consumers and other businesses depend on us. With our company no longer offering services, the customer group will have to find a new means of shipping, which could affect them in many different waysfrom an increase in operations cost to a loss in business. Businesses and consumers must be made aware of our closure early enough to find alternative service providers to meet their shipping needs.

	Community issues
	Additionally, the closing of our companys operations will affect the local community and economy in many surrounding areas. For example, Safford, Arizona, is one of many cities that will suffer from the loss of thousands of jobs. We need to assure residents that we will provide assistance for the affected areas through retraining and education initiatives.

Which design technique would improve the readability of this passage? Check all that apply.

A) Multiple bulleted or numbered lists

B) Larger margins

C) Parallelism