Document Design Project

 
overview  |  preparation & prewriting  |  deliverables  |  submission (due 12/7 @ 9:30am)

Assignment Overview

Links & In Class Examples

In professional writing, what you say is just as important as how you say it. In other words, the design of a professional document has a great impact on how an audience receives and responds to its content. After understanding the principles of document design, professional writers can use design to set tone and mood, influence understanding, highlight important points, and increase the overall usability and professionalism of a document.

This project will ask you to use a rhetorical approach to the analysis, planning, and implementation of effective document design. Specifically, you will 1) analyze and critique an existing professional document, 2) provide recommendations for improving the document’s overall design, and 3) present a revised “design concept” (or “mock up”) for the document.

But before any of that, you must first find an existing document to work with.

Preparation and Prewriting

Deliverables (What you Turn In)

Submission (Final Draft due Wednesday 12/7 @ 9:30am)

  • Save your Memo to the Client as a doc/x as “LastName-DD-Memo.”
  • Save your Redesigned Document as a PDF as “LastName-DD-Redesign.”
  • If you must save a multi-page document as separate .pdf files, please tack on a descriptive word to the end of the file name, e.g., “Mason-DD-Redesign-Front-Cover,” “Smith-DD-Redesign-Inside-Left,” or “Jones-DD-Redesign-Back-of-Postcard.”
  • To upload multiple files to Bb, you must browse and select a single file, browse again and select another single file, etc. After you see all the files under “attached files,” then click the “submit” button.
  • Upload files to Bb by 9:30am on Wednesday, 12/7 @ 9:30am.