Visuals should:
• Be clear and easily recognizable in the context of your writing
• Enhance the message in your writing, rather than detract from it
• Support any important objectives or points in your writing
• Use effective colors, formats, and layouts to establish a particular mood pertaining to your writing.
Visuals can include designing a layout to frame and organize your writing, using images or graphs to support your main ideas, or even using different fonts and text formatting to direct the readers attention. Using different colors or formatting in the lettering and layout of your writing can be very effective in drawing a reader’s attention to specific points or information. This can be accomplished by using various methods such as Bolding, CAPITALIZING, Underlining, Italicizing, etc… Visuals should be kept simple and easy to identify with. A rule of thumb would be one idea per visual; this way the reader can quickly associate the idea with its visual. In general visuals look more appealing when vertical and horizontal formats are not mixed together. Try to combine graphics with key words in your writing to help drive home your main points. A simple and efficient visual will be much more effective than a cluttered or wordy visual. If there is too much going on visually it can direct the reader’s attention away from your main points.
Example of visuals in a document:
Sources:
http://www.plu.edu/libr/media/designing_visuals.html
http://www.ua.edu/academic/oit/frc/resources/pdf/10tips.pdf
http://www3.uwstout.edu/lit/lts/graphics/upload/design.ppt
Image: http://www.tripwiremagazine.com
I liked the bulleted list that you included. All of the points under the list summarized what visuals should include and provide.
ReplyDeleteVery True, people are drawn to visuals. I know I am a visual person and I am more likely going to be attracted to a document with graphics vs. one without. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteI think your post was successful in convening the importance of utilizing visuals and the tips were very helpful also. I also liked the visual you included in your post; I thought that was a great example of how visuals are used in a document. I would have like to hear more of you in the post, perhaps adding something about your experience with using visuals would have been helpful. Overall, it is a well written post!
ReplyDeleteYou made some excellent points in your post. I felt like the introduction was a little repetitive but overall the post was very informative, easy to understand, and well organized. Great job!
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