English 208: Scientific and Technical Writing
SUGGESTIONS FOR FORMAT AND READABILITY
For your writing to be effective, it must offer sensible and convincing assertions in a clear style.
Just as important as content and style, however, are clarity and simplicity of format -- how the text and illustrations appear on the page. A good document can be ruined, or left unread, if its appearance frustrates the reader.
To make the best professional impression, a document must be VISUALLY compelling.
This requirement has gained importance because we are such a visual culture. Computer graphics, and the entire computer environment, are irrevocably changing our culture -- and our way of perceiving. Since we're all now conditioned by such visual mediums, we have to be sure that our documents use some of the features that they use.
Crucial among these is white space. There should be illustrations, subheadings, and other breaks on the page, so that the page feels more like a visual experience than like a traditional "book."
Here are some suggestions for creating a "readable" document.
Double space between paragraphs. Or double space the whole document.
Use justified-left, ragged-right margins. Don't use full justification (left and right margins flush) unless you're working with a page that has 3 columns.
Leave space in the text to paste in illustrations right with the text that refers to them.
Be sure the print is dark. Keep your printer well serviced so that it prints crisp, clear text.
Use a simple type face. Don't use more than three different typefaces in any one document.
Leave ample margins all around -- right, left, top, and bottom. Don't crowd too much text on the page. Leave enough white space on the page for the eye to relax.
Use page numbers, except on the first page if this first page is a memo.
Limit paragraph length to about fifteen lines of typed text. Break paragraphs if they're longer than this.
Use italics or underline or bold-face for emphasis.
Use subheadings, and set them either flush left or centered.
Don't leave a subhead floating by itself at the bottom of a page, with its text beginning at the top of the next. Use the "widow/orphan" feature to prevent this, or just re-space the subheading to the top of the next page.
Run a spell check on the document.
Don't waste your time using so-called "grammar checkers." They just aren't that useful. They tend to identify as problems stylistic features that are actually correct, and they tend to overlook subtle problems that need attention.
Print a copy of your document and read it "aloud to yourself" to find errors that can easily be missed when you're scanning the document on the computer screen.
Print a copy of your document and have a trusted friend read it for errors. Then correct it and print a final copy.
THIS PASSAGE NEEDS TO BE REVISED -- it's too wordy and imprecise
New Land, Inc. has recently lost money on great land holdings that are not managed or cultivated. The amount of property taxes that the company is paying on these vast acres costs far more than the company makes from the land. Natural succession has not progressed at a practical rate, and has yet to produce forest on the farm's waste-land areas.
New Land, Inc. would like to improve the area without a lot of cost put into alteration of the soil nutrient levels, which could eventually produce grass lands or forests. Monies put into the improvement of the land would not return unless the area produces something that is salable.
In order to profit off the land, New Land would like to pasture steers through the summer to be sold to market in the fall. The problem with this is that there is nothing for the cattle to eat on the acres and acres of abused land.
Problems arise, too, as there is no fencing to retain the cattle to their grazing areas. In search of food, these animals are capable of traveling for miles and miles.
This report will not address the fencing problem, but may deter animals from wandering by supplying food they will like to eat. Many grasses that are quality forage and palatable to cattle will not grow on poor soils, however. That is why I'm suggesting that we use tall fescue on unimproved lands to graze cattle.
242 words
REVISION:
New Land, Inc. is not currently making a profit on its 5,250 acres of land reclaimed from strip mining. Even though the land is not being managed or cultivated, taxes must still be paid.
In order to make the land profitable, New Land, Inc. intends to plant tall fescue on it so that steers can graze there during the summer and be sold in the fall. Fescue is the crop of choice because grasslands do not easily re-seed themselves on re-claimed stripped land given the soil's low levels of essential nutrients. Fescue being available will keep the steers from roaming elsewhere in search of food, thus eliminating the need for fencing.
111 words