Modules 4 & 5

Planning, Writing, and Revising

When writing a paper the first step of the process is to plan. The problem or purpose of you writing has to be figured out and then you have to make an outline or organize topics. After you have gathered all your information you can begin to write your paper. It doesn't have to be perfect it can be a list, or a formal draft to give you a sense of where you are going. After you have finished writing you paper you can begin the Revision process. You revise it by evaluating it against the goals you set at the beginning of your paper. The paper should be complete, understandable, and organized. After rearranging, adding, and deleting you can check the spelling and word choices in your paper.  Most of your time should be saved for planning and revising. Planning as much as you can by brainstorming and clustering is very important. Making yourself free write for 10 minutes without stopping or you can cluster and write your topic in the middle of the page and write down ideas around it.

Once you get to the revision process you are re-seeing the document. Revising is the most important and time taking part of the paper. You will be making changes that will satisfy your purpose and the audience. You will also be editing by making surface changes to the paper. Then you finish by proofreading. This could be a very repetitive process.  It's important to have a thorough revision of your paper and check for content and clarity, organization and layout, and style and tone. You should not let a grammar checker to the editing for you because it may not always be correct. Also, even though there is a spell check you should still proofread to make sure there weren’t other errors the spell check might have missed. You can get good feedback on your paper by cycling it, but don't get upset about negative criticism because it is the best for you to make you become a better writer. Also sometimes writers block gets in the way of our ability to compose a good paper harmoniously so it is good to practice writing regularly, talk positive to yourself, free writing for ten minutes, and setting modest goals are good.

Designing Documents, Slides, and Screens

When designing paper pages you should use five guidelines. Use white space to separate and emphasize points, use headings, limit the use of words set in all capital letters, use no more than two fonts in a single document, decide whether to justify margins based on the situation and the audience.  When designing a presentation the slides should be kept simple, be relevant, and interesting. Use big fonts, use bullet points rather than complete sentences, use clear concise language, make only 3-5 points on each slide, and customize the slides with the company’s logo or charts.

Designing a Web page is much more detail oriented because it is for another user to navigate through. You have to pay attention to content, navigation, and the first screen. The design should be interesting and never created from scratch. The first screen should be extremely easy to use. Minimize the number of links that users have to click to get to their desired place. Use small graphics and keep animations at a minimum. They take time to load and if you do have animations include a skip button. Provide a visual variety for the user like bullets or numbered list. Provide a link to the homepage and contact information for the creator of the page. To know if your design works you should test it.  Watch someone else use the document to do a task and see if they seemed confused or lost at certain points. Ask the person to think out loud so you will know where the design still needs work. Test it with people who might have the most trouble with it because there will always be someone who will struggle with a not so clear webpage. You should think about your design at each stage of the writing process. This is when the best designs are created because you are thinking about your audiences.