Quick tips for e-mails:

1. Keep your messages brief.
2. Use short paragraphs.
3. Use the subject line to specify your message.
4. Use headings to identify the sections of your message.
5. Ask simple yes/no questions.

Five principles will help you plan your document’s visual design:

• Know what decisions are yours to make.
• Choose a design that fits your situation.
• Plan your design from the beginning.
• Reveal your design to your readers.
• Keep your design consistent.

Four ways to help your readers find information:

• Use frequent headings.
• Write descriptive headings.
• Design distinctive headings.
• Use page numbers and headers or footers.

Five suggestions will help you write useful headings:

• Use concrete language.
• Use questions, verb phrases, and sentences instead of nouns alone.
• Use standard keywords if readers expect them.
• Make the headings at a given level parallel.
• Make sure the headings match any list or table of contents in the document.

Seven suggestions to help you design distinctive headings:

• Limit the number of heading levels.
• Create a pattern for the headings and stick to it.
• Match size to importance.
• Put more space before a heading than after it.
• Keep each heading with the section it covers.
• Use headings frequently.
• Consider using numbers with your headings.

Key Quotations and Terms

active space
footer
header
justifying the text
passive space
ragged right margin
“Readers judge a document by how it looks as much as by what it contains.”