Make your writing look good. When impatient readers – and there are lots of them - look at a long page of unbroken print, they’re apt to think “I’m not sure I want to read that.” You can try to avoid that reaction in several ways.


Here are some of the things you can do to make your writing look better in print or online.


• Put your title and any headings in a bold, easy – to read type font. (See Chapter 11 on Document Design to learn more about using headings and different type fonts.)


• Leave plenty of white space around titles, illustrations and blocks of print. Be sure your writing doesn’t look crowded and dark.


• Add graphs and charts to reinforce and dramatize statistics or chunks of data.


• Use illustrations and graphics when appropriate.


• Keep paragraphs short, especially if your writing is going to appear in columns or online.


• Look for ways to break your writing into units.


We’ll add here that you may want to postpone working on the Body Language of your project until you get to either the small scale revising or editing stage. Too much early concern about appearance could distract you in the drafting stage.

Other Pages in This Section :

• Choose A Good Title.

• Write Strong Leads.

• Keep Your Writing Tight And Unified.

• Keep Your Sentences and Paragraphs to a Reasonable Length.

• Chunk Your Writing Into Manageable Units.

• Avoid Antagonizing Your Readers.

• Use Figurative And Connotative Language Sparingly.

• Avoid Stereotypes And Offensive Labeling.

• Maintain A Civil Tone.