Writing Chapter 5 Summary

Good document design contributes to readability, but readability really depends on your purpose and audience and sometimes even on other elements in writing such as your subject, length restrictions or any other specific requirements.  Margarins help control the look of a page.  Most academic and business documents leave a margin of one to one and a half inches on all sides.  These margarins create a visual frame for the text and provide room for annotations.  If you have a choice, select a font that fits your writing situation in an easy-to-read.  Font styles such as boldface, italics and underlining can be helpful for calling attention to part of a document. 
Headings should be as brief and as informative as possible.  Certain styles of headings, the most common being -ing phrases, noun phrases, questions and imperative sentence-work better for some purposes, audiences and sujects more than others.  Using lists to guide readers is a great tool. Lists are easy to read or scan when they are displayed rather than run into your text.  Lists should usually be introduced with an independant clause followed by a colon. 
Using visuals to help your writing, not to substitute for it be to visualize it.  Always consider how a visual supports your purpose and how your audience might respond to it.    A visual may be placed in the text of a document, near a discussion to which it relates or it can be put in appendix, labeled, and referred to in the text.  If you download a photograph from the web or scan an image from a magazine or book, you must cite the information even thought the visual is your own.
Next time while I am writing a paper, I will make sure I have my margins set to 1 inch to 1 and a half inches. I knew it was something close to those measurements but I wasn't sure.  Also, I will make sure my headings are brief and not ramble on which I tend to do:-)  I will try and make it look clean and easy to read by placing lists after a semi colon.  This kind of paper seems to make it easier on the visual eye to read the document.  It also really makes those ideas stand out if that is your intention.