A good document design helps reader to understand the context and visual easily in ways that serve their interest and needs. Schriver (1997) states that a good document design should incorporate both text and image to convey effective message to the reader.
During a presentation, audience engagement or participation can determines their understanding and accessible to the presented information. By imagining how readers access information, switching in between the roles of a presenter and audience can answer whether a document design is good or bad. (Putnis & Petelin 1999)
Lets see an example as below :-
Slide 1 : Integration of text and visual
My analysis : These are 2 examples i took from my first assignment presentation slides. During my presentation, I found out that my audience are more likely to engage in slide (1) rather than slide (2), therefore the combination of text and visual are more effective in communicating with audience as they tend to pay more attention to slide (1) which proves what Schriver (1997) has explained earlier is correct.
Rothman (2008) opines that a good writing involves relaying specific information directly and literally. It should be interactive with its audience providing with relavant information. There should be no symbolic or associative interpretations. It is written for a direct and specified purpose that should remain unchanged and conveyed without information loss, regardless of its audience. How readers access information from website can explain why a good writing must be direct. According to Nielsen (1997), readers scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences rather than reading web pages word by word.
Therefore, simple, direct and accurate words are essential elements in good writing.
References
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 6: The meaning of composition
Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1999, Professional communication, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall Australia Pty Ltd, Australia.
Schriver K.A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.
Reep, DC 1997, Technical writing: principles, strategies, and readings, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
Jacob Nielsen's Alertbox, Reading on the Web, access on 11 April 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>
<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/what_makes_good_scientific_and_technical.html?cat=4>
