Divine Design

The two articles for this week make the same basic argument, that even the simplest design elements, e.g. font type, font size, etc., should be carefully considered. Petroski asserts that a clear and effective design can help to lead the audience toward your destination or message. You must plan your writing well, being proactive and anticipating any possible problems that may arise in your writing. Kostelnick describes the importance of connecting your visuals and verbal. He asserts that all visuals must be placed into a context in your writing, otherwise they add nothing of substance to your writings. He also reminds us that just because it may be easy to BOLD a heading does not mean that it should be used to fix a problem; a problem may not even exist.

In my project, I have two different opportunities to use design to improve my writing. When writing my PR plan for IPTAY, I need to be cautious of the design elements and visuals that I use. For instance, the visual that shows all of the elements of the iTiger plan is a good use of a visual to complement the text. Just because that visual works in that context does not mean my PR plan should be inundated with visuals; they may not serve any purpose for the rest of the writing. When creating examples of flyers, news releases, etc., visuals will play a larger role. These documents are intended for a different audience with the purpose being to inform and persuade them. Flyers will look like print advertisements, so they should be visually appealing, and the news releases should be easy to follow and should employ "supra-textual cues" to add coherence to the document.